“He stood, and heard the steeple
Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town.
One, two, three, four, to market-place and people
It tossed them down.

Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour,
He stood and counted them and cursed his luck;
And then the clock collected in the tower
Its strength, and struck.”

— A.E. Housman

No. 15 ("Eight O'Clock").
Last Poems http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8lspm10.txt (1922)

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A.E. Housman 69

English classical scholar and poet 1859–1936

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