Alfred Edward Housman

More Poems. 40. Farewell to a Name and a Number

Farewell to a name and a number
        Resigned again
To darkness and silence and slumber
        In blood and pain.

So time coils round in ring
        And home comes he
A soldier cheap to the King
        And dear to me;

So smothers in blood the burning
        And flaming flight
Of valour and truth returning
        To dust and night.