Last Poems (Housman)/In valleys green and still

by Alfred Edward Housman

VII

In valleys green and still
 Where lovers wander maying
They hear from over hill
 A music playing.

Behind the drum and fife,
 Past hawthornwood and hollow,
Through earth and out of life
 The soldiers follow.

The soldier's is the trade:
 In any wind or weather
He steals the heart of maid
 And man together.

The lover and his lass
 Beneath the hawthorn lying
Have heard the soldiers pass,
 And both are sighing.

And down the distance they
 With dying note and swelling
Walk the resounding way
 To the still dwelling