Alfred Edward Housman

Last Poems. 35. When First My Way to Fair I Took

When first my way to fair I took
        Few pence in purse had I,
And long I used to stand and look
        At things I could not buy.

Now times are altered: if I care
        To buy a thing, I can;
The pence are here and here’s the fair,
        But where’s the lost young man?

— To think that two and two are four
        And neither five nor three
The heart of man has long been sore
        And long ’tis like to be.