Bring, In This Timeless Grave To Throw

Alfred Edward Housman

Bring, in this timeless grave to throw,
No cypress, sombre on the snow;
Snap not from the bitter yew
His leaves that live December through;
Break no rosemary, bright with rime
And sparkling to the cruel clime;
Nor plod the winter land to look
For willows in the icy brook
To cast them leafless round him: bring
No spray that ever buds in spring.

But if the Christmas field has kept
Awns the last gleaner overstept,
Or shrivelled flax, whose flower is blue
A single season, never two;
Or if one haulm whose year is o’er
Shivers on the upland frore,
—Oh, bring from hill and stream and plain
Whatever will not flower again,
To give him comfort: he and those
Shall bide eternal bedfellows
Where low upon the couch he lies
Whence he never shall arise.

Next 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : Clunton And Clunbury
• Alfred Edward Housman : Could Man Be Drunk Forever
• Alfred Edward Housman : Diffugere Nives ( Horace, Odes 4.7 )
• Alfred Edward Housman : Eight O'clock
• Alfred Edward Housman : Epitaph On An Army Of Mercenaries
• Alfred Edward Housman : Far In A Western Brookland
• Alfred Edward Housman : Farewell To Barn And Stack And Tree
• Alfred Edward Housman : Fragment Of A Greek Tragedy
• Alfred Edward Housman : From Far, From Eve And Morning
• Alfred Edward Housman : Here Dead We Lie

Previous 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : Bredon Hill
• Alfred Edward Housman : Be Still, My Soul, Be Still; The Arms You Bear Are Brittle
• Alfred Edward Housman : Be Still, My Soul, Be Still
• Alfred Edward Housman : As Through The Wild Green Hills Of Wyre
• Alfred Edward Housman : Along The Field As We Came By
• Alfred Edward Housman : 1887
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : What Shall I Do For The Land That Bred Me
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : What Being In Rank-old Nature Should Earlier Have That Breath Been
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : What Being In Rank-old Nature
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : Tom's Garland