Others, I am not the first, <br />Have willed more mischief than they durst: <br />If in the breathless night I too <br />Shiver now, 'tis nothing new. <br /> <br />More than I, if truth were told, <br />Have stood and sweated hot and cold, <br />And through their reins in ice and fire <br />Fear contended with desire. <br /> <br />Agued once like me were they, <br />But I like them shall win my way <br />Lastly to the bed of mould <br />Where there's neither heat nor cold. <br /> <br />But from my grave across my brow <br />Plays no wind of healing now, <br />And fire and ice within me fight <br />Beneath the suffocating night.<br /><br />Alfred Edward Housman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/others-i-am-not-the-first/
