A Shropshire Lad - XII

by A. E. Housman

    When I watch the living meet,
    And the moving pageant file
    Warm and breathing through the street
    Where I lodge a little while,

    If the heats of hate and lust
    In the house of flesh are strong,
    Let me mind the house of dust
    Where my sojourn shall be long.

    In the nation that is not
    Nothing stands that stood before;
    There revenges are forgot,
    And the hater hates no more;

    Lovers lying two and two
    Ask not whom they sleep beside,
    And the bridegroom all night through
    Never turns him to the bride.