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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  823. The Two Highwaymen

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. b. 1840

823. The Two Highwaymen

I LONG have had a quarrel set with Time 
Because he robb’d me. Every day of life 
Was wrested from me after bitter strife: 
I never yet could see the sun go down 
But I was angry in my heart, nor hear         5
The leaves fall in the wind without a tear 
Over the dying summer. I have known 
No truce with Time nor Time’s accomplice, Death. 
  The fair world is the witness of a crime 
Repeated every hour. For life and breath  10
Are sweet to all who live; and bitterly 
The voices of these robbers of the heath 
Sound in each ear and chill the passer-by. 
—What have we done to thee, thou monstrous Time? 
What have we done to Death that we must die?  15