On moonlit heath and lonesome bank <br />The sheep beside me graze; <br />And yon the gallows used to clank <br />Fast by the four cross ways. <br /> <br />A careless shepherd once would keep <br />The flocks by moonlight there, * <br />And high amongst the glimmering sheep <br />The dead man stood on air. <br /> <br />They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail: <br />The whistles blow forlorn, <br />And trains all night groan on the rail <br />To men that die at morn. <br /> <br />There sleeps in Shrewsbury jail to-night, <br />Or wakes, as may betide, <br />A better lad, if things went right, <br />Than most that sleep outside. <br /> <br />And naked to the hangman's noose <br />The morning clocks will ring <br />A neck God made for other use <br />Than strangling in a string. <br /> <br />And sharp the link of life will snap, <br />And dead on air will stand <br />Heels that held up as straight a chap <br />As treads upon the land. <br /> <br />So here I'll watch the night and wait <br />To see the morning shine, <br />When he will hear the stroke of eight <br />And not the stroke of nine; <br /> <br />And wish my friend as sound a sleep <br />As lads' I did not know, <br />That shepherded the moonlit sheep <br />A hundred years ago.<br /><br />Alfred Edward Housman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-moonlit-heath-and-lonesome-bank/
