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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 26 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: ALONG THE FIELD AS WE CAME BY
Last Line: AND SHE BESIDE ANOTHER LAD.
Subject(s): TRANSIENCE; IMPERMANENCE;

Along the field as we came by
A year ago, my love and I
The aspen over stile and stone
Was talking to itself alone.
'Oh who are these that kiss and pass?
A country lover and his lass;
Two lovers looking to be wed;
And time shall put them both to bed,
But she shall] lie with earth above,
And he beside another love.'

And sure enough beneath the tree
There walks another love with me,
And overhead the aspen heaves
Its rainy-sounding silver leaves;
And I spell nothing in their stir,
But now perhaps they speak to her,
And plain for her to understand
They talk about a time at hand
When I shall sleep with clover clad,
And she beside another lad.




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