"That there was nothing in my belief...."See in text(Text of the Poem)
By refusing to look behind him, Hardy keeps alive the possibility that Emma is with him and spares himself the grief of discovering that she is not there.
"As a sad response; and to keep down grief..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
Until this point in the poem, Hardy’s emotional state has only been implied. Here he expresses it as one of sadness and grief, suggesting his feelings of despair regarding Emma’s death.
"Though how do you get into this old track?..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
Hardy now actively engages in his imaginary reunion with Emma, thinking she is standing behind him and speaking to her directly as he tries to understand how she could now appear in “this old track,” a reference to the path through the garden.
"I long had learned to lack..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
Even as Hardy is drawn deeper into imagining Emma’s presence, he acknowledges her having died. The alliteration of the “L” sound in “long,” “learned,” and “lack” unites the three words, suggesting that he has lived without her for some time and that living without her had been difficult, something he had to learn how to do.
"And they shaped in my imagining..."See in text(Text of the Poem)
The key word in this passage is “imagining.” From his memories of watching Emma work in the garden, Hardy see her shadow in the shadows on the stone cast by the nearby tree. His imagining that he sees Emma’s shadow provides further insight into his emotional state; he sees what he wants to see in the shadows.
