Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

1887

Alfred Edward Housman

“1887” as printed in A Shropshire Lad (1896).

Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics Text 2 1896 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsVictorian song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from A Shropshire Lad, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,

The shires have seen it plain,

From north and south the sign returns

And beacons burn again.

Verse 2

Look left, look right, the hills are bright,

The dales are light between,

Because 't is fifty years to-night

That God has saved the Queen.

Verse 3

Now, when the flame they watch not towers

About the soil they trod,

Lads, we 'll remember friends of ours

Who shared the work with God.

Verse 4

To skies that knit their heartstrings right,

To fields that bred them brave,

The saviours come not home to-night:

Themselves they could not save.

Verse 5

It dawns in Asia, tombstones show

And Shropshire names are read;

And the Nile spills his overflow

Beside the Severn's dead.

Verse 6

We pledge in peace by farm and town

The Queen they served in war,

And fire the beacons up and down

The land they perished for.

Verse 7

'God save the Queen' we living sing,

From height to height 't is heard;

And with the rest your voices ring,

Lads of the Fifty-third.

Verse 8

Oh, God will save her, fear you not:

Be you the men you 've been,

Get you the sons your fathers got,

And God will save the Queen.

Credits

Written by Alfred Edward Housman

Words by Alfred Edward Housman. Historical text published in A Shropshire Lad (1896); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

A Shropshire Lad (1896), “1887”

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) died more than 89 years ago; his works entered the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions in 2007, and the 1896 first edition is in the public domain in the United States. Entries credited to other hands are held unless their author died more than 70 years ago.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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