Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

A Shropshire Lad. 8. Farewell to Barn and Stack and Tree

‘FAREWELL to barn and stack and tree,
  Farewell to Severn shore.
Terence, look your last at me,
  For I come home no more.
 
‘The sun burns on the half-mown hill,
  By now the blood is dried;
And Maurice amongst the hay lies still
  And my knife is in his side.
 
‘My mother thinks us long away;
  ’Tis time the field were mown.
She had two sons at rising day,
  To-night she ’ll be alone.
 
‘And here ’s a bloody hand to shake,
  And oh, man, here ’s good-bye;
We ’ll sweat no more on scythe and rake,
  My bloody hands and I.
 
‘I wish you strength to bring you pride,
  And a love to keep you clean,
And I wish you luck, come Lammastide,
  At racing on the green.
 
‘Long for me the rick will wait,
  And long will wait the fold,
And long will stand the empty plate,
  And dinner will be cold.’

1. Additional Poems. 11a. They Shall Have Breath that Never Were
2. Last Poems. 21. The Fairies Break Their Dances
3. Last Poems. 19. In Midnights of November
4. More Poems. 29. From the Wash the Laundress Sends
5. Additional Poems. 16. Some Can Gaze and not Be Sick

Print

1982 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version