Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Into my heart an air that kills

Alfred Edward Housman

“Into my heart an air that kills” as printed in A Shropshire Lad (1896).

Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics Text 17 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

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires, what farms are those?

Verse 2

That is the land of lost content,

I see it shining plain,

The happy highways where I went

And cannot come again.

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), “Into my heart an air that kills”

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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