A Shropshire Lad/Oh fair enough are sky and plain

by Alfred Edward Housman

XX

Oh fair enough are sky and plain,
But I know fairer far:
Those are as beautiful again
That in the water are;

The pools and rivers wash so clean
The trees and clouds and air,
The like on earth was never seen,
And oh that I were there.

These are the thoughts I often think
 As I stand gazing down
In act upon the cressy brink
 To strip and dive and drown;

But in the golden-sanded brooks
 And azure meres I spy
A silly lad that longs and looks
 And wishes he were I.

 

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