Why Do I?

Why do I go on doing these things?
Why not cease?
Is it that you are yet in this world of welterings
And unease,
And that, while so, mechanic repetitions please?

When shall I leave off doing these things?--
When I hear
You have dropped your dusty cloak and taken your wondrous wings
To another sphere,
Where no pain is: Then shall I hush this dinning gear.

- Thomas Hardy