When I would muse in boyhood

by A. E. Housman

    When I would muse in boyhood
    The wild green woods among,
    And nurse resolves and fancies
    Because the world was young,
    It was not foes to conquer,
    Nor sweethearts to be kind,
    But it was friends to die for
    That I would seek and find.

    I sought them far and found them,
    The sure, the straight, the brave,
    The hearts I lost my own to,
    The souls I could not save.
    They braced their belts about them,
    They crossed in ships the sea,
    They sought and found six feet of ground,
    And there they died for me.