I hoed and trenched and weeded,
   And took the flowers to fair:
I brought them home unheeded;
   The hue was not the wear.

So up and down I sow them
   For lads like me to find,
When I shall lie below them,
   A dead man out of mind.

Some seed the birds devour,
   And some the season mars,
But here and there will flower
   The solitary stars,

And fields will yearly bear them
   As light leaved spring comes on,
And luckless lads will wear them
   When I am dead and gone.

A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
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