Author: A E Housman

The lad came to the door at night, When lovers crown their vows, And whistled soft and out of sight […]

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing […]

Shot? so quick, so clean an ending? Oh that was right, lad, that was brave: Yours was not an ill […]

Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, […]

The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws And grasses in the mead renew their birth, The river to […]

The star-filled seas are smooth tonight From France to England strown; Black towers above Portland light The felon-quarried stone. On […]

Far in a western brookland That bred me long ago The poplars stand and tremble By pools I used to […]

In my own shire, if I was sad, Homely comforters I had: The earth, because my heart was sore, Sorrowed […]

The Sun at noon to higher air, Unharnessing the silver Pair That late before his chariot swam, Rides on the […]

Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough The land and not the sea, And leave the soldiers at their […]

“Clunton and Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun, Are the quietest places Under the sun.” In valleys of springs and rivers, By […]

I hoed and trenched and weeded, And took the flowers to fair: I brought them home unheeded; The hue was […]

“Farewell to barn and stack and tree, Farewell to Severn shore. Terence, look your last at me, For I come […]

The rainy Pleiads wester, Orion plunges prone, The stroke of midnight ceases And I lie down alone. The rainy Pleiads […]

“Is my team ploughing, That I was used to drive And hear the harness jingle When I was man alive?” […]

Stars, I have seen them fall, But when they drop and die No star is lost at all From all […]

When I meet the morning beam, Or lay me down at night to dream, I hear my bones within me […]

Tell me not here, it needs not saying, What tune the enchantress plays In aftermaths of soft September Or under […]

It nods and curtseys and recovers When the wind blows above, The nettle on the graves of lovers That hanged […]

‘Tis spring; come out to ramble The hilly brakes around, For under thorn and bramble About the hollow ground The […]

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists? And what has he been after that they […]

The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair, There’s men from the barn and the forge […]

From Clee to heaven the beacon burns, The shires have seen it plain, From north and south the sign returns […]

O why do you walk through the fields in boots, Missing so much and so much? O fat white woman […]

“Oh, sick I am to see you, will you never let me be? You may be good for something, but […]

In summertime on Bredon The bells they sound so clear; Round both the shires they ring them In steeples far […]

‘TERENCE, this is stupid stuff: You eat your victuals fast enough; There can’t be much amiss, ’tis clear, To see […]

Say, lad, have you things to do? Quick then, while your day’s at prime. Quick, and if ’tis work for […]

When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, “Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart […]

ALONG the field as we came by A year ago, my love and I, The aspen over stile and stone […]