A Shropshire Lad - LIX - The Isle Of Portland

by A. E. Housman

The Isle of Portland was published in Housman's collection of 63 poems in A Shropshire Lad (1896). Housman self-published the book after being turned down by several publishers. Themes tend to focus on unrequited love, pastoral beauty, fleeting youth, grief, death, and patriotism.

    The star-filled seas are smooth to-night
    From France to England strown;
    Black towers above the Portland light
    The felon-quarried stone.

    On yonder island, not to rise,
    Never to stir forth free,
    Far from his folk a dead lad lies
    That once was friends with me.

    Lie you easy, dream you light,
    And sleep you fast for aye;
    And luckier may you find the night
    Than ever you found the day.