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A Shropshire Lad XII: When I watch the living meet

Housman, A. E. (1859 - 1936)

Original Text: 
A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., 1896): 19-20. del H68 S551896 Fisher Rare Book Library
1When I watch the living meet,
2    And the moving pageant file
3Warm and breathing through the street
4    Where I lodge a little while,
5If the heats of hate and lust
6    In the house of flesh are strong,
7Let me mind the house of dust
8    Where my sojourn shall be long.
9In the nation that is not
10    Nothing stands that stood before;
11There revenges are forgot,
12    And the hater hates no more;
13Lovers lying two and two
14    Ask not whom they sleep beside,
15And the bridegroom all night through
16    Never turns him to the bride.
Publication Start Year: 
1896
RPO poem Editors: 
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition: 
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme: 
abab