Alfred Edward Housman

Last Poems. 33. When the Eye of Day Is Shut

When the eye of day is shut,
        And the stars deny their beams,
And about the forest hut Blows
        the roaring wood of dreams,

From deep clay, from desert rock,
        From the sunk sands of the main,
Come not at my door to knock,
        Hearts that loved me not again.

Sleep, be still, turn to your rest
        In the lands where you are laid;
In far lodgings east and west
        Lie down on the beds you made.

In gross marl, in blowing dust,
        In the drowned ooze of the sea,
Where you would not, lie you must,
        Lie you must, and not with me.