| A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896. |
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| XLVI. Bring, in this timeless grave to throw |
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| 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 | 5 |
| And sparkling to the cruel crime; | |
| Nor plod the winter land to look | |
| For willows in the icy brook | |
| To cast them leafless round him: bring | |
| To spray that ever buds in spring. | 10 |
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| 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 | 15 |
| 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 | 20 |
| Where low upon the couch he lies | |
| Whence he never shall arise. | |
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