A Shropshire Lad

by A.E. Housman

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 51
Rating:

Synopsis:

Few volumes of poetry in the English language have enjoyed as much success with both literary connoisseurs and the general reader as A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad, first published in 1896. 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. Yet their simple language, strong musical cadences and direct emotional appeal have won these works a wide audience among general readers as well.

A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad is a classic, and I know a couple of the poems best by appearances elsewhere (Dorothy L. Sayers’ Strong Poison and Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising), but I was surprised on this reread by how… uninspired most of it seemed. And I was a bit surprised by the pro-suicide poems I hadn’t remembered.

I know part of it was Housman putting on personas and playing around, but overall it seemed fairly well-worn, words ill-chosen, etc. There are a couple of standouts — ‘White in the moon the long road lies’, which is quoted in The Dark is Rising, would be one of them — but mostly… I remembered it being better than this. Or at least, more enjoyable to me; I’m sure there are people who still think it deserves all the praise!

So that was a bit of a disappointing reread, anyway, but I was pleased to finally place the poem quoted in Strong Poison (briefly in the book, at greater length and with relish by Ian Carmichael in the radio play).

Rating: 2/5