Hughley Steeple

Alfred Edward Housman

LXI

The vane on Hughley steeple
Veers bright, a far-known sign,
And there lie Hughley people,
And there lie friends of mine.
Tall in their midst the tower
Divides the shade and sun,
And the clock strikes the hour
And tells the time to none.

To south the headstones cluster,
The sunny mounds lie thick;
The dead are more in muster
At Hughley than the quick.
North, for a soon-told number,
Chill graves the sexton delves,
And steeple-shadowed slumber
The slayers of themselves.

To north, to south, lie parted,
With Hughley tower above,
The kind, the single-hearted,
The lads I used to love.
And, south or north, 'tis only
A choice of friends one knows,
And I shall ne'er be lonely
Asleep with these or those.

Next 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : I Hoed And Trenched And Weeded
• Alfred Edward Housman : If By Chance Your Eye Offend You
• Alfred Edward Housman : If Truth In Hearts That Perish
• Alfred Edward Housman : In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad
• Alfred Edward Housman : In Valleys Of Springs And Rivers
• Alfred Edward Housman : Into My Heart An Air That Kills
• Alfred Edward Housman : Is My Team Ploughing
• Alfred Edward Housman : It Nods And Curtseys And Recovers
• Alfred Edward Housman : Loitering With A Vacant Eye
• Alfred Edward Housman : Look Not In My Eyes, For Fear

Previous 10 Poems

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