A Shropshire Lad XXXI: On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble

A Shropshire Lad XXXI: On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble

Original Text
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., 1896): 45-46. del H68 S551896 Fisher Rare Book Library
1On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble;
2    His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
3The gale, it plies the saplings double,
4    And thick on Severn snow the leaves.
5'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
6    When Uricon the city stood:
7'Tis the old wind in the old anger,
8    But then it threshed another wood.
9Then, 'twas before my time, the Roman
10    At yonder heaving hill would stare:
11The blood that warms an English yeoman,
12    The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.
13There, like the wind through woods in riot,
14    Through him the gale of life blew high;
15The tree of man was never quiet:
16    Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I.
17The gale, it plies the saplings double,
18    It blows so hard, 'twill soon be gone:
19To-day the Roman and his trouble
20    Are ashes under Uricon.
Publication Start Year
1896
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme
abab