The Rainy Pleiads Wester
The rainy Pleiads wester,
Orion plunges prone,
The stroke of midnight ceases
And I lie down alone.
The rainy Pleiads wester,
And seek beyond the sea
The head that I shall dream of
That will not dream of me.
– A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
Sung by John Diamond
Date of Composition: December 30, 2003
Commentary: Published posthumously in 1936, Housman’s poem is based on a celebrated fragment of Greek poetry known as the “Midnight Poem,” of unknown authorship, although often attributed to Sappho: “The moon and the Pleiades have set, / it is midnight, / time is passing, / but I sleep alone.”