1     The time you won your town the race
2     We chaired you through the market-place;
3     Man and boy stood cheering by,
4     And home we brought you shoulder-high.

5     To-day, the road all runners come,
6     Shoulder-high we bring you home,
7     And set you at your threshold down,
8     Townsman of a stiller town.

9     Smart lad, to slip betimes away
10   From fields where glory does not stay
11   And early though the laurel grows
12   It withers quicker than the rose.

13   Eyes the shady night has shut
14   Cannot see the record cut,
15   And silence sounds no worse than cheers
16   After earth has stopped the ears:

17   Now you will not swell the rout
18   Of lads that wore their honours out,
19   Runners whom renown outran
20   And the name died before the man.

21   So set, before its echoes fade,
22   The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
23   And hold to the low lintel up
24   The still-defended challenge-cup.

25   And round that early-laurelled head
26   Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
27   And find unwithered on its curls
28   The garland briefer than a girl's.

• Other poems by Housman ...
• The poet's life and works ...

Composition Date:

not known.

Form:

aabb.