The poems of heinrich heine, the songs of william shakespeare, and scottish border ballads were housmans models, from which he learned to express emotion yet keep it at a certain distance. Composers began setting the poems to music less than ten years after their first appearance. Housman, archie burnett, nick laird, john sparrow on. I have not read the entire collection of poems in a shropshire lad yet. A shropshire lad is a collection of sixtythree poems by the english poet alfred edward housman, published in 1896. The gas was on in the institute, the flare was up in the gym, a man was running a mineral line, a lass was singing a hymn, when captain webb the dawley man, captain webb from dawley, came swimming along the old canal. He published two volumes of poetry during his life, including a shropshire lad 1896, which was widely read during world war i.
Housman, pessimist, classicist and connoisseur of melancholy, was also one the greatest formal masters of his age. A shropshire lad poem by john betjeman poem hunter. A shropshire lad, 1887 from clee to heaven the beacon burns. Poems i to xxi poems xxii to xlii poems xliii to lxiii i 1887 from clee to heaven the beacon burns, the shires have seen it plain, from north and south the sign returns. A shropshire lad was first published in 1896 at housmans own expense after several publishers had turned it down. He is most famous for his cycle of poems known as a shropshire lad. Few volumes of poetry in the english language have enjoyed as much success with both literary connoisseurs and the general reader as a.
A shropshire lad iii the recruit american literature. After a slow beginning, it rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Housmans lyrics express a romantic pessimism in a clear, direct style. Loveliest of trees the cherry nowis hung with bloom along the boughand stands about the woodland ride.
The collection of lyrical poems became hugely successful following the second boer war and world war i, with themes such as nostalgia for ones home and the patriotic celebration of the life of the solider striking a chord with english readers. It has been superseded by the collected housman page and thats probably where you want to be. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now fame, as a poet, came very slowly to a. Housmans poems, is the encounter his spirit constantly endures with life.
Scholars and critics have seen in these timeless poems an elegance of taste and perfection of form and feeling comparable to the greatest of the classic. Introduction the method of the poems in a shropshire lad illustrates better than any theory how poetry may assume the attire of reality, and yet in speech of the simplest, become in spirit the sheer quality of loveliness. Like many poems in a shropshire lad, on wenlock edge is about the brevity of life but, as elsewhere in housman, this is seen as having its positive aspects as well as its obvious downside. This penguin classics edition is introduced by nick laird with revisions by archie burnett and an afterword by john sparrow. A shropshire lad poem john betjeman poems best poems. A shropshire lad by sir john betjeman famous poems. The gas was on in the institute, the flare was up in the gym, a man was running a mineral line, a lass was singing a hymn, when captain webb the dawley man, captain webb from dawley, came swimming along the old canal that carried the. E housmans poems are, to me, touching and filled with emotion, and reminiscent of a time when literature was appreciated much more than today. Kenneth williams hosts wogan 21st april 1986 derek nimmo, janet brown, norman parkinson duration.
Housman a shropshire lad was originally published in 1896. A shropshire lad 1896 the month of may was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit. The rhapsody, an orchestral epilogue to the composers song cycle of the same name, is in the form of an elegy. Mixing the styles of the traditional english ballad and classical verse, the young housman takes on the growing pains of youth and young love. Housman manages to utilize a remarkable control of allusion within this short expanse of verse to create the very definition of poetry through a tightly controlled comparison of the fragility.
Written in 1896 and originally a collection of poems that seemed destined to go out of print forever, a shropshire lad comprises 63 individual poems of varying meter and length, all dealing with the themes of adolescence, the rustic countryside of shropshire, and premature death, usually by violence, war, e. What are those blue remembered hills, what spires, what. Is hung with bloom along the bough, and stands about the woodland ride. The second verse in a shropshire lad, loveliest of trees, the cherry now, is a meditation upon the brief burning candle that is the human life span. A shropshire lad xl into my heart an air that kills from yon far country blows. To ask me a question or send me a comment, please read this. Housmans a shropshire lad, first published in 1896. His reputation rests on just the two books of short lyrics published in his lifetime, a shropshire lad 1896 and last poems 1922 and. It was in this atmosphere of purple patches and fine phrases that there appeared a shropshire lad, a slender volume containing sixtythree short poemssome only eight lines longwritten. A shropshire lad was first published in 1896 at housmans. Alfred edward housman was born was born in worcestershire, england, and he was profoundly.
During his lifetime he only published two volumes of poetry. Housman was one of the bestloved poets of his day, and a shropshire lad and other poems is a collection of poems whose elegant simplicity of form belies their hidden complexities. A shropshire lad is a cycle of sixtythree poems by the english poet alfred edward housman. The method of the poems in a shropshire lad illustrates better than any theory how poetry may assume the attire of reality, and yet in speech of the simplest, become in spirit the sheer quality of loveliness. I save it for times when i want a little quiet time so i can sit and read and enjoy it. Housman wrote most of the 63 poems that make up a shropshire lad in the early months of 1895 during what he called a period of continuous excitement. A posthumous collection, called more poems, was edited by his brother laurence housman. Themes tend to focus on unrequited love, pastoral beauty, fleeting youth, grief, death, and patriotism. Those poems were very popular with late victorian and edwardian audiences. The gas was on in the institute, the flare was up in the gym, a man was running a mineral line, a lass was singing a hymn, when captain webb the dawley man, captain webb from dawley, came swimming along the old canal that carried the bricks to lawley. The recruit was published in housmans collection of 63 poems in a shropshire lad 1896.
Housman 18591936 a shropshire lad is a cycle of sixtythree poems by the english poet alfred edward housman. Evocative of the blue remembered hills of his youth, alfred edward housmans a shropshire lad is a collection of sixtythree poems of extraordinary beauty and feeling. Alfred edward housman was born in worcestershire, england, and he was profoundly affected by. Housman 18591936 was one of the greatest classicists of his age, and was also, following the success of his selfpublished first volume of poems, a shropshire lad 1896, a hugely popular poet. Housman selected poems the following is a fairly extensive selection of housmans poetry originally published by me, martin hardcastle, in the early 1990s. Housman, james mason a shropshire lad and other poetry at discogs. Housmans into my heart an air that kills a critical reading of a nostalgic poem a. At first glance, it can be a major surprise that the author of the enormously popular poetry collection a shropshire lad was a classical scholar by the name of a. Housman 18591936 is a collection of sixtythree poems first published in england in 1896. Housmans a shropshire lad, and chose those that mourn the lives and deaths of redcoats british soldiers. All this quite points to, and partly explains, the charm of the poems in a shropshire lad. He was a brilliant classicist, first appointed professor of latin at university college, london, then trinity college, cambridge. The fortieth poem in housmans seminal collection a shropshire lad, into my heart an air that kills imagines the past as a land of lost content. Alfred edward housman was born in fockbury, worcestershire, england, on march 26, 1859.
The poems of heinrich heine, the songs of william shakespeare, and scottish border ballads were. A wonderful collection from one of englands bestloved poets one of the most admired poets of his day. Housman if there is one poem on this list that you should memorize, its this one. It is, this encounter, what you feel in the greeks, and as in the greeks, it is a spiritual. The english poet and classical scholar alfred edward housman 1859 1936 is popularly known as a. A shropshire lad, ii poem by alfred edward housman poem. Housman this collection of verse is housmans signature work. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems wistfully evoke the dooms and disappointments of youth in the english countryside. Housmans a shropshire lad and last poems together with an introduction by keith hale that.
The gas was on in the institutethe flare was up in the gyma man was running a mineral line. Housman selfpublished the book after being turned down by several publishers. He was a renowned classical scholar who dedicated much of his life to textual analysis of often obscure greek and latin authors. The best poems according to a professor who teaches the. Set in a semiimaginary pastoral shropshire, housmans verse considers the helplessness of man, the fragility of life and the terrible effects of war, against the background. From clee to heaven the beacon burns, at first glance, it can be a major surprise that the author of the enormously popular poetry collection a shropshire lad was a classical scholar by the name of a. Some of the betterknown poems in the book are to an athlete dying young, loveliest of trees, the cherry now and when i was oneandtwenty. The fastidious care with which each poem is built out of the simplest of technical elements, the precise tone and color of language employed to articulate impulse and mood, and the reproduction of objective substances for a clear visualization of character and scene, all tend by a sure and unfaltering composition, to present a lyric art unique in english poetry of the last twentyfive years. Housman, was an english classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems a shropshire lad. The lines and malt does more than milton can to justify gods ways to man.