A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896.
I. From Clee to heaven the beacon burns
1887F
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.
The dales are light between,
Because ’tis fifty years to-night
That God has saved the Queen.
About the soil they trod,
Lads, we ’ll remember friends of ours
Who shared the work with God.
To fields that bred them brave,
The saviours come not home to-night
Themselves they could not save.
And Shropshire names are read;
And the Nile spills his overflow
Beside the Severn’s dead.
The Queen they served in war,
And fire the beacons up and down
The land they perished for.
From height to height ’tis heard;
And with the rest your voices ring,
Lads of the Fifty-third.
Be you the men you ’ve been,
Get you the sons your fathers got,
And God will save the Queen.