A Shropshire Lad - IX

by A. E. Housman

    On moonlit heath and lonesome bank
    The sheep beside me graze;
    And yon the gallows used to clank
    Fast by the four cross ways.

    A careless shepherd once would keep
    The flocks by moonlight there, [1]
    And high amongst the glimmering sheep
    The dead man stood on air.

    They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail:
    The whistles blow forlorn,
    And trains all night groan on the rail
    To men that die at morn.

    There sleeps in Shrewsbury jail to-night,
    Or wakes, as may betide,
    A better lad, if things went right,
    Than most that sleep outside.

    And naked to the hangman's noose
    The morning clocks will ring
    A neck God made for other use
    Than strangling in a string.

    And sharp the link of life will snap,
    And dead on air will stand
    Heels that held up as straight a chap
    As treads upon the land.

    So here I'll watch the night and wait
    To see the morning shine,
    When he will hear the stroke of eight
    And not the stroke of nine;

    And wish my friend as sound a sleep
    As lads' I did not know,
    That shepherded the moonlit sheep
    A hundred years ago.