E. Housman
E. Housman
fine next oh shall year
May will be fine next year as like as not: / Oh ay, but then we shall be twenty-four.
years twenties wearing-white
Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again.
spring years white
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room, About the woodlands I will go To see the cherry hung with snow.
gone london sights year
In my fourteenth year I had gone up to London for the first time, to see as many of the sights as could be got into a fortnight.
golden heart maiden
With rue my heart is laden / For golden friends I had, / For many a rose-lipt maiden / And many a lightfoot lad.
lay notion range time within
At that time I had no notion that I should ever come to live in Somerset - to live actually within the range of what then lay before me.
heart men blue
His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away.
poetry rats terriers
I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.
fits hands men sober
But men at whiles are sober / And think by fits and starts, / And if they think, they fasten / Their hands upon their hearts.
clean love
Oh, when I was in love with you, / Then I was clean and brave.
land lie though
No change, though you lie under / The land you used to plough.
earth sea turning wears
Made of earth and sea / His overcoat for ever, / And wears the turning globe.
ask lovers lying night sleep turns whom
Lovers lying two by two / Ask not whom they sleep beside, / And the bridegroom all night through / Never turns him to the bride.
pass
Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May.