Alfred Edward Housman

A Shropshire Lad. 38. The Winds out of the West Land Blow

The winds out of the west land blow,
 My friends have breathed them there;
Warm with the blood of lads I know
 Comes east the sighing air.

It fanned their temples, filled their lungs,
 Scattered their forelocks free;
My friends made words of it with tongues
 That talk no more to me.

Their voices, dying as they fly,
 Thick on the wind are sown;
The names of men blow soundless by,
 My fellows' and my own.

Oh lads, at home I heard you plain,
 But here your speech is still,
And down the sighing wind in vain
 You hollo from the hill.

The wind and I, we both were there,
 But neither long abode;
Now through the friendless world we fare
 And sigh upon the road.