A Shropshire Lad XXXV: On the idle hill of summer

A Shropshire Lad XXXV: On the idle hill of summer

1On the idle hill of summer,
2    Sleepy with the flow of streams,
3Far I hear the steady drummer
4    Drumming like a noise in dreams.
5Far and near and low and louder
6    On the roads of earth go by,
7Dear to friends and food for powder,
8    Soldiers marching, all to die.
9East and west on fields forgotten
10    Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
11Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
12    None that go return again.
13Far the calling bugles hollo,
14    High the screaming fife replies,
15Gay the files of scarlet follow:
16    Woman bore me, I will rise.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire