Housman on Mars

Onto our screens a view that fills
Vagabond hearts with joy.
What are those dusky, unclimbed hills,
What plains are these, what sky?

It is a world our gadgets roam,
A dream they have explored,
But there the future found a home
That we could ill afford.

And whether we find out or no
The answers that we sought,
I doubt if I will ever know;
Our lives are very short.

Gale Crater Rim, view westwards
— NASA photograph