Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 9, by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: On moonlit heath and lonesome bank Last Line: A hundred years ago. Alternate Author Name(s): Housman, A. E. Subject(s): Capital Punishment; Hanging; Executions; Death Penalty | ||||||||
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, 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NEGATIVES by PHILIP LEVINE ALL LIFE IN A LIFE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN by ARTHUR SZE TWO FUNERALS: 2. by LOUIS UNTERMEYER BALLADE OF THE MEN WHO WERE HANGED by FRANCOIS VILLON EPITAPH IN BALLADE FORM by FRANCOIS VILLON VILLON'S EPITAPH by FRANCOIS VILLON A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 1. 1887 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN |
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