A Shropshire Lad | Page 4

away again.?There, when the turf in springtime flowers,?With downward eye and gazes sad,?Stands amid the glancing showers?A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.
XVI
It nods and curtseys and recovers?When the wind blows above,?The nettle on the graves of lovers?That hanged themselves for love.
The nettle nods, the wind blows over,?The man, he does not move,?The lover of the grave, the lover?That hanged himself for love.
XVII
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 May time 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.
XVIII
Oh, when I was in love with you,?Then I was clean and brave,?And miles around the wonder grew?How well did I behave.
And now the fancy passes by,?And nothing will remain,?And miles around they'll say that I?Am quite myself again.
XIX
TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG
The time you won your town the race?We chaired you through the market-place;?Man and boy stood cheering by,?And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,?Shoulder-high we bring you home,?And set you at your threshold down,?Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away?From fields where glory does not stay?And early though the laurel grows?It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut?Cannot see the record cut,?And silence sounds no worse than cheers?After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout?Of lads that wore their honours out,?Runners whom renown outran?And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,?The fleet foot on the sill of shade,?And hold to the low lintel up?The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head?Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,?And find unwithered on its curls?The garland briefer than a girl's.
XX
Oh fair enough are sky and plain,?But I know fairer far:?Those are as beautiful again?That in the water are;
The pools and rivers wash so clean?The trees and clouds and air,?The like on earth was never seen,?And oh that I were there.
These are the thoughts I often think?As I stand gazing down?In act upon the cressy brink?To strip and dive and drown;
But in the golden-sanded brooks?And azure meres I spy?A silly lad that longs and looks?And wishes he were I.
XXI
BREDON HILL [1]
In summertime on Bredon?The bells they sound so clear;?Round both the shires they ring them?In steeples far and near,?A happy noise to hear.
Here of a Sunday morning?My love and I would lie?And see the coloured counties,?And hear the larks so high?About us in the sky.
The bells would ring to call her?In valleys miles away:?"Come all to church, good people;?Good people, come and pray."?But here my love would stay.
And I would turn and answer?Among the springing thyme,?"Oh, peal upon our wedding,?And we will hear the chime,?And come to church in time."
But when the snows at Christmas?On Bredon top were strown,?My love rose up so early?And stole out unbeknown?And went to church alone.
They tolled the one bell only,?Groom there was none to see,?The mourners followed after,?And so to church went she,?And would not wait for me.
The bells they sound on Bredon,?And still the steeples hum.?"Come all to church, good people,"-?Oh, noisy bells, be dumb;?I hear you, I will come.
[1] Pronounced Breedon.
XXII
The street sounds to the soldiers' tread,?And out we troop to see:?A single redcoat turns his head,?He turns and looks at me.
My man, from sky to sky's so far,?We never crossed before;?Such leagues apart the world's ends are,?We're like to meet no more;
What thoughts at heart have you and I?We cannot stop to tell;?But dead or living, drunk or dry,?Soldier, I wish you well.
XXIII
The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in for the fair,?There's men from the barn and the forge and the mill and the fold, The lads for the girls and the lads for the liquor are there, And there with the rest are the lads that will never be old.
There's chaps from the town and the field and the till and the cart, And many to count are the stalwart, and many the brave,?And many the handsome of face and the handsome of heart,?And few that will carry their looks or their truth to the grave.
I wish one could know them, I wish there were tokens to tell The fortunate fellows that now you can never discern;?And then one could talk with them friendly and wish them farewell And watch them depart on the way that they will not return.
But now you may stare as you like and there's nothing to scan; And brushing your elbow unguessed-at and not to be told?They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,?The lads that will die in their glory and never be old.
XXIV
Say, lad, have you things to do??Quick then, while your