A Shropshire Lad

Critique • Quotes

Notable lines

From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.

— First lines, "I: 1887"

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough.

— "II"

Come you home a hero,
Or come not home at all,
The lads you leave will mind you
Till Ludlow tower shall fall.

— "III: The Recruit"

And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.

— "XIX: To an Athlete Dying Young"

But from my grave across my brow
Plays no wind of healing now,
And fire and ice within me fight
Beneath the suffocating night.

— "XXX"

"Terence, this is stupid stuff:
You eat your victuals fast enough;
There can't be much amiss, 'tis clear,
To see the rate you drink your beer.
But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,
It gives a chap the belly-ache.
The cow, the old cow, she is dead;
It sleeps well, the horned head:
We poor lads, 'tis our turn now
To hear such tunes as killed the cow.
Pretty friendship 'tis to rhyme
Your friends to death before their time
Moping melancholy mad:
Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad."

— "LXII: The Recruit"

Some seed the birds devour,
And some the season mars,
But here and there will flower
The solitary stars,

Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think.

— "LXII"

Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.

— "LXII"

Some seed the birds devour,
And some the season mars,
But here and there will flower
The solitary stars,

And fields will yearly bear them
As light-leaved spring comes on,
And luckless lads will wear them
When I am dead and gone.

— Last lines, "LXIII"

 

Critique • Quotes

See also:

Metamorphoses

Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

The Waste Land

Buy the book:

A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems

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