Last Poems (Housman)/The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers

by Alfred Edward Housman

IX

The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers
 Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away,
The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers.
 Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May.

There's one spoilt spring to scant our mortal lot,
 One season ruined of our little store.
May will be fine next year as like as not:
 Oh, ay, but then we shall be twenty-four.

We for a certainty are not the first
 Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled
Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed
 Whatever brute and blackguard made the world.

It is in truth iniquity on high
 To cheat our sentenced souls of aught they crave,
And mar the merriment as you and I
 Fare on our long fool's-errand to the grave.

Iniquity it is; but pass the can.
 My lad, no pair of kings our mothers bore;
Our only portion is the estate of man:
 We want the moon, but we shall get no more.

If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours.
 To-morrow it will hie on far behests;
The flesh will grieve on other bones than ours
 Soon, and the soul will mourn in other breasts.

The troubles of our proud and angry dust
 Are from eternity, and shall not fail.
Bear them we can, and if we can we must.
 Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.