WENLOCK EDGE
by: A.E. Housman (1860-1936)
- N Wenlock
Edge the wood's in trouble;
- His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
- The gale, it plies the saplings double,
- And thick on Severn snow the leaves.
-
- 'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
- When Uricon the city stood:
- 'Tis the old wind in the old anger,
- But then it threshed another wood.
-
- Then, 'twas before my time, the Roman
- At yonder heaving hill would stare:
- The blood that warms an English yeoman,
- The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.
-
- There, like the wind through woods in riot,
- Through him the gale of life blew high;
- The tree of man was never quiet:
- Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I.
-
- The gale, it plies the saplings double,
- It blows so hard, 'twill soon be gone:
- To-day the Roman and his trouble
- Are ashes under Uricon.
"Wenlock Edge" is reprinted
from A Shropshire Lad. A.E. Housman. London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner & Co., 1896. |
MORE POEMS BY A.E. HOUSMAN |
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