Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 15 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: LOOK NOT IN MY EYES, FOR FEAR
Last Line: A JONQUIL, NOT A GRECIAN LAD.
Subject(s): GAYS & LESBIANS; HOMOEROTICISM; LESBIANS; GAY WOMEN; GAY MEN;

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.




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