Afterwards

I believe that this poem is about Thomas Hardy telling us his inner thoughts. He is wondering about what life on earth will be like once he has died. Will anybody remember him when he is gone? 'He was a man who used to notice such things' - 'He was one who had an eye for such mysteries'. are questions he is hopeing people will think of as they remember him.
Like many of his other poems, this one also has a main theme of death and sadness. The way Hardy tells the poem is as if he is subtly trying to inform the readers of what kind of a man he really is. Although he appears to be writing in questions as he is questioning whether or not people will wonder about his thoughts, he is also telling us about himself in the questions. For instance, 'To him this must have been a familiar sight', he is telling us that the sight of a 'dewfall-hawk' flying 'upon wind-warped upland thorn' is a sight that he DID see often as he liked to explore nature or go sight seeing. The fact that he may have liked to do all of these things would explain why he loves to write alot about the settings or scenary of all his other poems and also why he uses nature to set a mood or emotion.
The words he uses set a quite and peacefull feel, this may be because he is hoping that his passing will be quite and peacfull also. 'full starred heavens' and 'nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm' are good examples of this as the description 'full starred heavens' sounds very relaxing and peacfull as it would be if you were outside gazing at the sky at night. Also 'mothy and warm' gives quite a comfortable image and feeling to me. Moths are attracted to light so I get the calm relaxing feeling of sitting by a warm flame under the starry sky in the pitch dark of the night.