Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

Last Poems. 32. When I Would Muse in Boyhood

When I would muse in boyhood
        The wild green woods among,
And nurse resolves and fancies
        Because the world was young,
It was not foes to conquer,
        Nor sweethearts to be kind,
But it was friends to die for
        That I would seek and find.

I sought them far and found them,
        The sure, the straight, the brave,
The hearts I lost my own to,
        The souls I could not save.
They braced their belts around them,
        They crossed in ships the sea,
They sought and found six feet of ground,
        And there they died for me.

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