Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 63 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: I HOED AND TRENCHED AND WEEDED
Last Line: LAST POEMS
Subject(s): WAR;
I hoed and trenched and weeded,
And took the flowers to fair:
I brought them home unheeded;
The hue was not the wear.

So up and down I sow them
For lads like me to find,
When I shall lie below them,
A dead man out of mind.

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.


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