'Looking at a Picture on an Anniversary' (poem) written by Thomas Hardy

This poem was written in Spring 1913, with regret as his first wife, Emma (nee Gifford) had died the previous December 

But don't you know it, my dear,

Don't you know it,

That this day of the year

(What rainbow-rays embow it!)

We met, strangers confessed,

And parted - blest?

That at this query, my dear,

There in your frame

Unmoved you still appear,

You must be thinking the same,

But keep that look demure

Just to allure.

And now at length a trace

I surely vision

Upon that wistful face

Of old-time recognition,

Smiling forth, 'Yes, as you say,

It is the day.'

For this one phase of you

Now left on earth

This great date must endure

With pulsings of rebirth? -

I see them vitalise 

Those two deep eyes.

But if this face I con

Does not declare

Consciuusness living on

Still in it, little I care

To live myself, my dear

Lone-labouring on.