On moonlit heath and lonesome bank
A.E.Housman
1859 to 1936
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On moonlit heath and lonesome bank
The sheep me graze;
And yon the gallows used to clank
Fast by the four cross ways.
A careless shepherd would keep
The flocks by moonlight there,
And amongst the glimmering sheep
The dead man stood air.
They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail:
whistles blow forlorn,
And trains all night groan on rail
To men that die at morn.
There in Shrewsbury jail to-night,
Or wakes, as may betide,
A better lad, if things went right,
Than that sleep outside.
And naked to the hangman's noose
The morning clocks will ring
A neck God made other use
Than strangling in a string.
And the link of life will snap,
And dead air will stand
Heels that held up as straight chap
As treads upon the land.
So here I'll watch the night and wait
To see the shine,
When he will hear the stroke of eight
And not the stroke of nine;
And wish my as sound a sleep
As lads' I did know,
That shepherded the moonlit sheep
A hundred ago.