I thought I had blogged about a science fiction story I had read called “Blood’s a Rover”. It was by Chad Oliver positing a future where a holy language is found encoded in a person’s blood.

But it was the title (as well as its appropriateness to the story) which caught me.

It’s part of a line from an A.E.Housman poem called “The Shropshire Lad”

Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;

Breath’s a ware that will not keep.

Up, lad; when the journey’s over

There’ll be time enough for sleep.”