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Poems From "A Shropshire Lad" - XLVI

Topics: classic

Bring, in this timeless grave to throw,     No cypress, sombre on the snow;     Snap not from the bitter yew     His leaves that live December through;     Break no rosemary, bright with rime     And sparkling to the cruel clime;     Nor plod the winter land to look     For willows in the icy brook     To cast them leafless round him: bring     No spray that ever buds in spring.     But if the Christmas field has kept     Awns the last gleaner overstept,     Or shrivelled flax, whose flower is blue     A single season, never two;     Or if one haulm whose year is o'er     Shivers on the upland frore,     -Oh, bring from hill and stream and plain     Whatever will not flower again,     To give him comfort: he and those     Shall bide eternal bedfellows     Where low upon the couch he lies     Whence he never shall arise.

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"Bring, in this timeless grave to throw,..."

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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