When I Watch the Living Meet

Portrait of A.E. Housman
A.E. Housman 1859–1936

When I watch the living meet And the moving pageant file Warm and breathing through the street Where I lodge a little while,

If the heats of hate and lust In the house of flesh are strong, Let me mind the house of dust Where my sojourn shall be long.

In the nation that is not Nothing stands that stood before; There revenges are forgot, And the hater hates no more;

Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride

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