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Last Poems (Housman)/In midnights of November

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4482740Last Poems — In midnights of November1922Alfred Edward Housman
XIX
In midnights of November,When Dead Man's Fair is nigh,And danger in the valley,And anger in the sky,
Around the huddling homesteadsThe leafless timber roars,And the dead call the dyingAnd finger at the doors.
Oh, yonder faltering fingersAre hands I used to hold;Their false companion drowsesAnd leaves them in the cold.
Oh, to the bed of ocean,To Africk and to Ind,I will arise and followAlong the rainy wind.
The night goes out and underWith all its train forlorn;Hues in the east assembleAnd cocks crow up the morn.
The living are the livingAnd dead the dead will stay,And I will sort with comradesThat face the beam of day.