Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

A Shropshire Lad. 17. Twice a Week the Winter Thorough

Twice a week the winter thorough
   Here stood I to keep the goal:
Football then was fighting sorrow
   For the young man's soul.

Now in Maytime to the wicket
   Out I march with bat and pad:
See the son of grief at cricket
   Trying to be glad.

Try I will; no harm in trying:
   Wonder 'tis how little mirth
Keeps the bones of man from lying
   On the bed of earth. 

1. More Poems. 37. I Did Not Lose My Heart in Summer’s Even
2. More Poems. 29. From the Wash the Laundress Sends
3. More Poems. 28. He, Standing Hushed, a Pace or Two Apart
4. Last Poems. 33. When the Eye of Day Is Shut
5. A Shropshire Lad. 41. In My Own Shire, if I Was Sad

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