[439] A Shropshire Lad - XV

Guest poem sent in by Louise Archer <louise.archer@>

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.

	  -- A.E. Housman

I love this poem.  Not just for the content, but also for the "feel" of the
words.  It flows so beautifully and is vaguely sinister.  There is a
distinct shift in tone from line 8 to line 9, where he moves into the
explanation of the poem - where we learn that it is about self-love.

I have been to the house in Hampstead, UK, where Housman wrote A Shropshire
Lad, and I have to say if anywhere could inpspire poetry in someone, it is
there!

As to further suggestions for content - well, anything by Housman!!!

Louise

From: "S. W. Viar" <inten@>

You must understand,  I am a drop out  who got lucky.  Thanks for al the 
good works..  Later


Worldly

From: "S. W. Viar" <inten@>

Absolutely great.  Wish I could have written it,,  don't you???

But think about this!!!

Look not in my eyes, for fear
They mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
An love it and  be lost like me. etc   etc   etc   etc======
And so it goes

SV