Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.
Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.
Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.
The human relationship, exemplified by the young woman and her man, is what lives on, in the form of “story”. 
 Hardy sees enormous power and importance in this unassuming, calm scene. The two people in the scene are peaceful, symbolic of hope and the future.  “Go whispering by” is not the same as “Go by whispering” – “whispering” describes their movement as much as what they are doing as they move. It also suggests that there is a “story” of ensuing generations that the might be conveying to the reader and relates to ongoing humanity. 
 “Cloud into night” is the only metaphor in this poem, and its ambiguity, the “war’s annals”, remain in question. The chronicles of war will be forgotten and covered over long before the story of human relationships.
In Time of The Breaking of Nations