Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

A Shropshire Lad. 51. Loitering with a Vacant Eye

   Loitering with a vacant eye
Along the Grecian gallery,
And brooding on my heavy ill,
I met a statue standing still.
Still in marble stone stood he,
And stedfastly he looked at me.
"Well met," I thought the look would say,
"We both were fashioned far away;
We neither knew, when we were young,
These Londoners we live among."

   Still he stood and eyed me hard,
An earnest and a grave regard:
"What, lad, drooping with your lot?
I too would be where I am not.
I too survey that endless line
Of men whose thoughts are not as mine.
Years, ere you stood up from rest,
On my neck the collar prest;
Years, when you lay down your ill,
I shall stand and bear it still.
Courage, lad, 'tis not for long:
Stand, quit you like stone, be strong."
So I thought his look would say;
And light on me my trouble lay,
And I stept out in flesh and bone
Manful like the man of stone. 

1. Additional Poems. 4. It Is No Gift I Tender
2. More Poems. 46. The Land of Biscay
3. More Poems. 40. Farewell to a Name and a Number
4. Additional Poems. 2. Oh Were He and I Together
5. Last Poems. 26. The Half-Moon Westers Low, My Love

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