one of my favourite lines of poetry is from Houseman’s Shropshire Lad

 

That is the land of lost content

I see it shining plain 

The happy highways where I went 

And cannot come again 

 

it is memorable

but it is my opinion

that it should have read

 

That is the land of lost content

I see it shining plain 

The happy highways where once I went 

And cannot come again 

 

this has troubled me for a number of years

just one word

once

quite why the poet did not feel

the music of this line

is open to question

 

I often discuss this with Harry as we construct

Blue Motion Lamps in our red workshop

In Greenford