If Truth In Hearts That Perish

Alfred Edward Housman

If truth in hearts that perish
Could move the powers on high,
I think the love I bear you
Should make you not to die.

Sure, sure, if stedfast meaning,
If single thought could save,
The world might end to-morrow,
You should not see the grave.

This long and sure-set liking,
This boundless will to please,
—Oh, you should live for ever,
If there were help in these.

But now, since all is idle,
To this lost heart be kind,
Ere to a town you journey
Where friends are ill to find.

Next 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad
• Alfred Edward Housman : In Valleys Of Springs And Rivers
• Alfred Edward Housman : Into My Heart An Air That Kills
• Alfred Edward Housman : Is My Team Ploughing
• Alfred Edward Housman : It Nods And Curtseys And Recovers
• Alfred Edward Housman : Loitering With A Vacant Eye
• Alfred Edward Housman : Look Not In My Eyes, For Fear
• Alfred Edward Housman : Loveliest Of Trees, The Cherry Now
• Alfred Edward Housman : March
• Alfred Edward Housman : Now Hollow Fires Burn Out To Black

Previous 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : If By Chance Your Eye Offend You
• Alfred Edward Housman : I Hoed And Trenched And Weeded
• Alfred Edward Housman : Hughley Steeple
• Alfred Edward Housman : Ho, Everyone That Thirsteth
• Alfred Edward Housman : Here Dead We Lie
• Alfred Edward Housman : From Far, From Eve And Morning
• Alfred Edward Housman : Fragment Of A Greek Tragedy
• Alfred Edward Housman : Farewell To Barn And Stack And Tree
• Alfred Edward Housman : Far In A Western Brookland
• Alfred Edward Housman : Epitaph On An Army Of Mercenaries