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Who is it climbs the summit of the road?
Only the beggar bumming his dark load.
Who was it cried to see the falling star?
Only the landless soldier lost in war.
And did a thousand years go by in vain?
And does another thousand start again?

— Alun Lewis Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets (1945)

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More quotes by Alun Lewis

All this slowness, all this hardness,
The nearness that is waiting in my bed,
The gradual self-effacement of the dead.

Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets (1945)

I am more and more engrossed with the single poetic theme of Life and Death, for there doesn't seem to be any question more directly relevant than this one of what survives of all the beloved.

And we talked of girls, and dropping bombs on Rome,
And thought of the quiet dead and the loud celebrities
Exhorting us to slaughter.

So we must say Goodbye, my darling,
And go, as lovers go, for ever;
Tonight remains, to pack and fix on labels
And make an end of lying down together.

Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets (1945)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alun Lewis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.