This poem is found in Housman’s
A Shropshire Lad, it is number 43:
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.
The poem with the stressed
syllables underlined:
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.
This poem could be about investing
a lot of time in a love affair or
obsession with someone that goes
nowhere, and chosing not to be
ashamed of it but wear his folly
on his lapel so to speak (setting an
example for others in the same
situation). It even more likely about
the poet being rejected by publishers
(the poems being his flowers),
and deciding to publish himself,
so that the audience he knows is
out there might appreciate them
after his death, at least.
© C.A. MacLennan 2024