A View among English Hills
“about the woodlands I will go” ~ A. E. Housman
He stands beneath a live oak tree. It wears
Its leaves and bark. Sheep wear white wool. The wolds
Are clothed in fields and trees. They all are stairs
To heaven. Under them he firmly holds
His staff of wood and he is dressed in plain
Male outfit, trousers, cap, his vest, his shirt
And boots. These elements can’t fight the grain
Of underlying death, unnoticed dirt
And what it stands for. He is framed by gate
And ground and ancient tree and older sky—
And everything except that sky will mate
With doom, for even rock and mountain die.
For even worlds and galaxies’ star sheen
….Are gobbled. Never mind the Shropshire green.