For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade." - Meaning and context.">
No. 54
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With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

— A. E. Housman

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade." in the context of "No. 54" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "A. E. Housman" (Quotes, A Shropshire Lad (1896): A Shropshire Lad (1896) on Wikisource ยท Full text online at Project Gutenberg ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
A. E. Housman

About A. E. Housman

Alfred Edward Housman (26 March 1859 โ€“ 30 April 1936), usually known as A.E. Housman, was an English poet and classical scholar, now best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad.