XXXI
On Wenlock Edge the wood’s in trouble;
His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
And thick on Severn strew the leaves.
’Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
When Uricon the city stood:
’Tis the old wind in the old anger,
But then it threshed another wood.
Then, ’twas before my time, the Roman
At yonder heaving hill would stare:
The blood that warms an English yeoman,
The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.
There, like the wind through woods in riot,
Through him the gale of life blew high;
The tree of man was never quiet:
Then ’twas the Roman, now ’tis I.
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
It blows so hard, ’twill soon be gone:
To-day the Roman and his trouble
Are ashes under Uricon. — from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (1896)
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
If you were already familiar with the poem, you may have noticed that I replaced “snow” with “strew” in line four. I don’t think the original “snow” works, because leaves don’t fall like snow or look anything like snow. Plus, leaves don’t melt like snowflakes when they land on water. Plus plus, the consonant-cluster of “strew” works well with the idea of leaves coating the water.
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