Afterwards

When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay,
And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,
Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,
"He was a man who used to notice such things"? 

If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid's soundless blink,
The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight
Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,
"To him this must have been a familiar sight."

If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm,
When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn,
One may say, "He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm,
But he could do little for them; and now he is gone."

If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees,
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
"He was one who had an eye for such mysteries"?

And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom,
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell's boom,
"He hears it not now, but used to notice such things?"

--Thomas Hardy

...the party kind of broke up, and we all went to a diner for breakfast in the rainy morning...

...Karen held her puppy, and said "I'll be with you for good, from now on!"...

...the known Universe will asymptotically approach absolute zero while matter diffuses over vast distances...

...the storm clouds broke at last and a rare triple rainbow faced the setting Sun...

...The heroes took the Ship to the Western Lands, and were never more seen by Man....

...I went to the bar at the foot of the Mountain, and had a quick one to warm up before going home...

...the old woman made tea and Welsh Rabbit, and lay out her clothing for the week ahead...

...Odysseus walked inland, until a passer-by mistook his oar for a winnowing-fan, and there built his shrine to Posidon, thus ending the epic of the Trojan War.

Aft"er*wards (#), Aft"er*ward (#), adv. [AS. aefteweard, a., behind. See Aft, and -ward (suffix). The final s in afterwards is adverbial, orig. a genitive ending.]

At a later or succeeding time.

© Webster 1913.