Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ASTRONOMY by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE WAIN UPON THE NORTHERN STEEP
Last Line: IS BURIED WITH THE POLE.
Subject(s): WAR;
The Wain upon the northern steep
Descends and lifts away.
Oh I will sit me down and weep
For bones in Africa.

For pay and medals, name and rank,
Things that he has not found,
He hove the Cross to heaven and sank
The pole-star underground.

And now he does not even see
Signs of the nadir roll
At night over the ground where he
Is buried with the pole.




Home: PoetryExplorer.net