We now to peace and darkness
And earth and thee restore
Thy creature that thou madest
And wilt cast forth no more.

These lines read as a valediction—an address to God ("thou") at the point of death or surrender to oblivion. The speaker asks to be returned to "peace and darkness" and to the earth, framing death not as punishment but as restoration to a prior, quiet state. The phrase "thy creature that thou madest" emphasizes human life as a created thing, while "wilt cast forth no more" suggests a plea not to be brought back into the pains of living—no resurrection, no renewed exposure to suffering. In Housman’s characteristic mode, the religious diction is used to express a stoic, almost anti-consolatory acceptance of extinction.