Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

Last Poems. 35. When First My Way to Fair I Took

When first my way to fair I took
        Few pence in purse had I,
And long I used to stand and look
        At things I could not buy.

Now times are altered: if I care
        To buy a thing, I can;
The pence are here and here’s the fair,
        But where’s the lost young man?

— To think that two and two are four
        And neither five nor three
The heart of man has long been sore
        And long ’tis like to be.

1. More Poems. 33. On Forelands High in Heaven
2. Last Poems. 39. When Summer’s End Is Nighing
3. Last Poems. 22. The Sloe Was Lost in Flower
4. More Poems. 21. The World Goes None the Lamer
5. More Poems. 39. My Dreams Are of a Field Afar

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