A Shropshire Lad - XV

by A. E. Housman

    Look not in my eyes, for fear
    They mirror true the sight I see,
    And there you find your face too clear
    And love it and be lost like me.
    One the long nights through must lie
    Spent in star-defeated sighs,
    But why should you as well as I
    Perish? gaze not in my eyes.

    A Grecian lad, as I hear tell,
    One that many loved in vain,
    Looked into a forest well
    And never looked away again.
    There, when the turf in springtime flowers,
    With downward eye and gazes sad,
    Stands amid the glancing showers
    A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.