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LAST POEMS
LAST POEMS A. E. HOUSMAN I publish these poems few though they are because it is not likely
that I shall ever be impelled to write much more. I can no longer
expect to be revisited by the continuous excitement under which in
the early months of 1895 I wrote the greater part of my first book
nor indeed could I well sustain it if it came; and it is best that what
I have written should be printed while I am here to see it through
the press and control its spelling and punctuation. About a quarter
of this matter belongs to the April of the present year but most of
it to dates between 1895 and 1910.
September 1922
/We'll to the weeds no more
The laurels are all cut
The bowers are bare of bay
That once the Muses wore;
The year draws in the day
And soon will evening shut:
The laurels all are cut
We'll to the woods no more.
Oh we'll no more no more
To the leafy woods away
To the high wild woods of laurel
And the bowers of bay no more./
I
THE WEST
Beyond the moor and the mountain crest
--Comrade look not on the west--
The sun is down and drinks away
From air and land the lees of day.
The long cloud and the single pine
Sentinel the ending line
And out beyond it clear and wan
Reach the gulfs of evening on.
The son of woman turns his brow
West from forty countries now
And as the edge of heaven he eyes
Thinks eternal thoughts and sighs.
Oh wide's the world to rest or roam
With change abroad and cheer at home
Fights and furloughs talk and tale
Company and beef and ale.
But if I front the evening sky
Silent on the west look I
And my comrade stride for stride
Paces silent at my side
Comrade look not on the west:
'Twill have the heart out of your breast;
'Twill take your thoughts and sink them far
Leagues beyond the sunset bar.
Oh lad I fear that yon's the sea
Where they fished for you and me
And there from whence we both were ta'en
You and I shall drown again.
Send not on your soul before
To dive from that beguiling shore
And let not yet the swimmer leave
His clothes upon the sands of eve.
Too fast to yonder strand forlorn
We journey to the sunken bourn
To flush the fading tinges eyed
By other lads at eventide.
Wide is the world to rest or roam
And early 'tis for turning home:
Plant your heel on earth and stand
And let's forget our native land.
When you and I are split on air
Long we shall be strangers there;
Friends of flesh and bone are best;
Comrade look not on the west.
II
As I gird on for fighting
My sword upon my thigh
I think on old ill fortunes
Of better men than I.
Think I the round world over
What golden lads are low
With hurts not mine to mourn for
And shames I shall not know.
What evil luck soever
For me remains in store
'Tis sure much finer fellows
Have fared much worse before.
So here are things to think on
That ought to make me brave
As I strap on for fighting
My sword that will not save.
III
Her strong enchantments failing
Her towers of fear in wreck
Her limbecks dried of poisons
And the knife at her neck
The Queen of air and darkness
Begins to shrill and cry
'O young man O my slayer
To-morrow you shall die.'
O Queen of air and darkness
I think 'tis truth you say
And I shall die to-morrow;
But you will die to-day.
IV
ILLIC JACET
Oh hard is the bed they have made him
And common the blanket and cheap;
But there he will lie as they laid him:
Where else could you trust him to sleep?
To sleep when the bugle is crying
And cravens have heard and are brave
When mothers and sweethearts are sighing
And lads are in love with the grave.
Oh dark is the chamber and lonely
And lights and companions depart;
But lief will he lose them and only
Behold the desire of his heart.
And low is the roof but it covers
A sleeper content to repose;
And far from his friends and his lovers
He lies with the sweetheart he chose.
V
GRENADIER
The Queen she sent to look for me
The sergeant he did say
'Young man a soldier will you be
For thirteen pence a day?'
For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore
And I have marched to where I lie
And I shall march no more.
My mouth is dry my shirt is wet
My blood runs all away
So now I shall not die in debt
For thirteen pence a day.
To-morrow after new young men
The sergeant he must see
For things will all be over then
Between the Queen and me.
And I shall have to bate my price
For in the grave they say
Is neither knowledge nor device
Nor thirteen pence a day.
VI
LANCER
I 'listed at home for a lancer
/Oh who would not sleep with the brave?/
I 'listed at home for a lancer
To ride on a horse to my grave.
And over the seas we were bidden
A country to take and to keep;
And far with the brave I have ridden
And now with the brave I shall sleep.
For round me the men will be lying
That learned me the way to behave.
And showed me my business of dying:
/Oh who would not sleep with the brave?/
They ask and there is not an answer;
Says I I will 'list for a lancer
/Oh who would not sleep with the brave?/
And I with the brave shall be sleeping
At ease on my mattress of loam
When back from their taking and keeping
The squadron is riding home.
The wind with the plumes will be playing
The girls will stand watching them wave
And eyeing my comrades and saying
/Oh who would not sleep with the brave?/
They ask and there is not an answer;
Says you I will 'list for a lancer
/Oh who would not sleep with the brave?/
VII
In valleys green and still
Where lovers wander maying
They hear from over hill
A music playing.
Behind the drum and fife
Past hawthornwood and hollow
Through earth and out of life
The soldiers follow.
The soldier's is the trade:
In any wind or weather
He steals the heart of maid
And man together.
The lover and his lass
Beneath the hawthorn lying
Have heard the soldiers pass
And both are sighing.
And down the distance they
With dying note and swelling
Walk the resounding way
To the still dwelling.
VIII
Soldier from the wars returning
Spoiler of the taken town
Here is ease that asks not earning;
Turn you in and sit you down.
Peace is come and wars are over
Welcome you and welcome all
While the charger crops the clover
And his bridle hangs in stall.
Now no more of winters biting
Filth in trench from fall to spring
Summers full of sweat and fighting
For the Kesar or the King.
Rest you charger rust you bridle;
Kings and kesars keep your pay;
Soldier sit you down and idle
At the inn of night for aye.
IX
The chestnut casts his flambeaux and the flowers
Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away
The doors clap to the pane is blind with showers.
Pass me the can lad; there's an end of May.
There's one spoilt spring to scant our mortal lot
One season ruined of our little store.
May will be fine next year as like as not:
Oh ay but then we shall be twenty-four.
We for a certainty are not the first
Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled
Their hopeful plans to emptiness and cursed
Whatever brute and blackguard made the world.
It is in truth iniquity on high
To cheat our sentenced souls of aught they crave
And mar the merriment as you and I
Fare on our long fool's-errand to the grave.
Iniquity it is; but pass the can.
My lad no pair of kings our mothers bore;
Our only portion is the estate of man:
We want the moon but we shall get no more.
If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours
To-morrow it will hie on far behests;
The flesh will grieve on other bones than ours
Soon and the soul will mourn in other breasts.
The troubles of our proud and angry dust
Are from eternity and shall not fail.
Bear them we can and if we can we must.
Shoulder the sky my lad and drink your ale.
X
Could man be drunk for ever
With liquor love or fights
Lief should I rouse at morning
And lief lie down of nights.
But men at whiles are sober
And think by fits and starts
And if they think they fasten
Their hands upon their hearts.
XI
Yonder see the morning blink:
The sun is up and up must I
To wash and dress and eat and drink
And look at things and talk and think
And work and God knows why.
Oh often have I washed and dressed
And what's to show for all my pain?
Let me lie abed and rest:
Ten thousand times I've done my best
And all's to do again.
XII
The laws of God the laws of man
He may keep that will and can;
Now I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves say I and they
Need only look the other way.
But no they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbour to their will
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master right or wrong;
Though both are foolish both are strong
And since my soul we cannot fly
To Saturn or Mercury
Keep we must if keep we can
These foreign laws of God and man.
XIII
THE DESERTER
"What sound awakened me I wonder
For now 'tis dumb."
"Wheels on the road most like or thunder:
Lie down; 'twas not the drum.:
"Toil at sea and two in haven
And trouble far:
Fly crow away and follow raven
And all that croaks for war."
"Hark I heard the bugle crying
And where am I?
My friends are up and dressed and dying
And I will dress and die."
"Oh love is rare and trouble plenty
And carrion cheap
And daylight dear at four-and-twenty:
Lie down again and sleep."
"Reach me my belt and leave your prattle:
Your hour is gone;
But my day is the day of battle
And that comes dawning on.
"They mow the field of man in season:
Farewell my fair
And call it truth or call it treason
Farewell the vows that were."
"Ay false heart forsake me lightly:
'Tis like the brave.
They find no bed to joy in rightly
Before they find the grave.
"Their love is for their own undoing.
And east and west
They scour about the world a-wooing
The bullet in their breast.
"Sail away the ocean over
Oh sail away
And lie there with your leaden lover
For ever and a day."
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