Alfred Edward Housman

Last Poems. 38. Oh Stay at Home, My Lad, and Plough

Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough
        The land and not the sea,
And leave the soldiers at their drill,
And all about the idle hill
        Shepherd your sheep with me.

Oh stay with company and mirth
        And daylight and the air;
Too full already is the grave
Of fellows that were good and brave
        And died because they were.