Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

More Poems. 45. Smooth Between Sea and Land

Smooth between sea and land
Is laid the yellow sand,
And here through summer days
The seed of Adam plays.

Here the child comes to found
His unremaining mound,
And the grown lad to score
Two names upon the shore.

Here, on the level sand,
Between the sea and land,
What shall I build or write
Against the fall of night?

Tell me of runes to grave
That hold the bursting wave,
Or bastions to design
For longer date than mine.

Shall it be Troy or Rome
I fence against the foam,
Or my own name, to stay
When I depart for aye?

Nothing: too near at hand,
Planing the figured sand,
Effacing clean and fast
Cities not built to last
And charms devised in vain,
Pours the confounding main.

1. Additional Poems. 13. Oh Turn not in from Marching
2. More Poems. 9. When Green Buds Hang in the Elm Like Dust
3. More Poems. 37. I Did Not Lose My Heart in Summer’s Even
4. More Poems. 32. Their Seed the Sowers Scatter
5. More Poems. 24. Stone, Steel, Dominions Pass

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