A Shropshire Lad (1896) is a cycle of sixty-three poems by the
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poet Alfred Edward Housman.
Reception
A Shropshire Lad was first published in 1896 at Housman's own expense after several publishers had turned it down, much to the surprise of his colleagues and students. At first the book sold slowly, but during the
Second Boer WarThe Second Boer War , commonly referred to as The Boer War and also known as the South African War , the Anglo-Boer War and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog , or the Engelse oorlog was fought...
, Housman's nostalgic depiction of rural life and young men's early deaths struck a chord with English readers and the book became a bestseller. Later,
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
further increased its popularity.
Arthur SomervellSir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of 'art-song' in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....
and other composers were inspired by the folksong-like simplicity of the poems, and the most famous musical settings are by
George ButterworthGeorge Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer best known for his tone poem The Banks of Green Willow and his settings of A. E. Housman's poems.- Early years :...
and
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
, with others by
Ivor GurneyIvor Bertie Gurney was an English composer and war poet.Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890, Gurney sang as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, from 1900 to 1906, when he became an articled pupil of Dr Herbert Brewer at the cathedral...
,
John Ireland- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth. John was the youngest of the five children of Alexander's second...
and
Ernest John MoeranErnest John Moeran was an English composer.-Early life:Moeran was born in Heston , the son of an Irish clergyman...
.
Housman was surprised by the success of
A Shropshire Lad because it, like all his poetry, is imbued with a deep pessimism and an obsession with death, with no place for the consolations of religion. Set in a half-imaginary pastoral
ShropshireShropshire , alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated, in print only, Shrops, is a county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Wales to the west. Shropshire is one of England's most rural and sparsely populated counties with a population density of 91/km²...
, "the land of lost content" (in fact Housman wrote most of the poems before visiting the county), the poems explore the fleetingness of love and decay of youth in a spare, uncomplicated style which many critics of the time found out-of-date as compared to the exuberance of some Romantic poets. Housman himself acknowledged the influence of the songs of
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, the Scottish Border Ballads and
Heinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers most notably by Robert Schumann...
, but specifically denied any influence of
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
classicsClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity...
in his poetry.
Themes and style
The main theme of
A Shropshire Lad is mortality, and so living life to its fullest, since death can strike at any time. For example, number IV, titled "Reveille", urges an unnamed "lad" to stop sleeping in the daylight, for "When the journey's over/There'll be time enough to sleep."
One of Housman's most familiar poems is number XIII from
A Shropshire Lad, untitled but often anthologised under a title taken from its first line. The
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations includes no fewer than fourteen of its sixteen lines:
- When I was one-and-twenty
- I heard a wise man say,
- "Give crowns and pounds and guineas
- But not your heart away;
- Give pearls away and rubies
- But keep your fancy free."
- But I was one-and-twenty,
- No use to talk to me.
- When I was one-and-twenty
- I heard him say again,
- "The heart out of the bosom
- Was never given in vain;
- 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
- And sold for endless rue."
- And I am two-and-twenty
- And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
Poem XXVII, "
Is my team ploughing?" is a dialogue between a dead youth and a friend who has survived him. The dead youth asks:
- "Is my girl happy,
- That I thought hard to leave,
- And is she tired of weeping
- As she lies down to eve?"
The living replies
- "Ay, she lies down lightly,
- She lies not down to weep:
- Your girl is well contented.
- Be still, my lad, and sleep."
As the reader has begun to suspect, two stanzas later the living man acknowledges:
- "I cheer a dead man's sweetheart.
- Never ask me whose."
Poem LXII, "
Terence, this is stupid stuff", (
source) is a dialogue in which the poet, asked for "a tune to dance to" instead of his usual "moping melancholy" verse, offers the example of the old
King Mithridates-Early reign:Mithradates VI was the son of Mithradates V , who died when he was a boy. During Eupator's minority, supreme power was exercised by his mother queen Laodice, whom he eventually deposed and committed to prison...
who tasted a little of every poison until he inured himself to them all. Similarly, Housman advises the speaker that it is wise to occasionally contemplate and encounter the less-than-merry side of life.
- Therefore, since the world has still
- Much good, but much less good than ill,
- And while the sun and moon endure
- Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
- I'd face it as a wise man would,
- And train for ill and not for good.
Thematic summary
The work is composed around a series of recurrent themes. It is not a connected narrative, though it can be read as the allegorical narrative of a journey of the heart. The 'I' of the poems, the authorial person, is in two cases named as Terence (VIII, LXII), the 'Shropshire Lad' of the title: however, the poems are not necessarily all in the same voice, and the narrative suggested by the sequence, or themed groups, of poems is a general framework rather than a closely-defined trajectory.
The collection begins with the thought of the
ShropshireShropshire , alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated, in print only, Shrops, is a county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Wales to the west. Shropshire is one of England's most rural and sparsely populated counties with a population density of 91/km²...
lads who have died as soldiers in the service of Queen Victoria, as her
golden jubileeA Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In the Commonwealth Realms :In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Realms, a Golden Jubilee celebration is held in the 50th year of a monarch's reign.- For Queen Elizabeth II :...
(1887) is celebrated with a beacon bonfire at
CleeClee may refer to* Clee Hills, a range of hills in Shropshire, England**Brown Clee Hill, the highest point in the county of Shropshire, in the Clee Hills.**Titterstone Clee Hill, a hill in the Clee Hills, Shropshire...
(I). There is little time for a lad to live and enjoy the spring (II). Death awaits the soldier (III-IV). Maids are not always kind (V-VI): the farmer also comes to the grave (VII). Some lads murder their brothers, and are hanged (VIII-IX). Love may be unrequited (X). A dead lad's ghost begs the consolation of a last embrace (XI). Unattainable love leaves the lad helpless and lost (XIII-XVI). The playing of a game of cricket or football masks a broken heart (XVII).
The athlete who died young was wise, for he did not outlive his renown (XIX). The poet befriends death in his heart, admiring the courage of the departing soldier (XXII). He envies the country lads who die young and do not grow old (XXIII). Quick, while he is alive and young, put him to use! (XXIV). A lover may die, and his girl will walk out with another (XXV-XXVII). The hostility of the ancient
SaxonAnglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066...
and Briton are in his blood, and death and begetting are intermingled in him (XXVIII). The storm on
Wenlock EdgeWenlock Edge is a limestone escarpment near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England. It is 15 miles long and runs from South West to North East between Craven Arms and Much Wenlock. It is roughly 330 metres high...
stirs the same turmoil in him that it stirred in the ancient
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
at Wroxeter (XXXI). He is here but for a moment - take this hand! (XXXII) But if he is of no use to them that he loves, he will go away, perhaps to be a soldier (XXXIV, XXXV). Or one may live an exile from home in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, but never forgetting home and friends (XXXVII, XXXVIII).
The wind sighs across England to him from Shropshire, but he will not see the
broomBrooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the three genera Chamaecytisus, Cytisus and Genista, but also in five other small genera . All genera in this group are from the tribe Genisteae...
flowering gold on Wenlock Edge (XXXVIII-XL). London is full of dark-hearted men who fear and hate one other, but he will find a use for his living frame while he has a living will (XLIII). The suicide is wise, for he prefers to die cleanly than live in shame (XLIV). Bring him no flowers, but only what will never flower again (XLVI). A carpenter's son once died on the gallows, so that other lads might live (XLVII). He was happy before he was born, but he will endure life for a while: the cure for all sorrows will come in time (XLVIII). If dark-roomed London has its troubles, so do
ClunClun is a small town in Shropshire, England. The town is located entirely in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2001 census recorded 642 people living in the town...
and Knighton, and the only cure for any of them is the grave (L).
Though he is in London, his spirit wanders about his home fields (LII). From the unquiet grave the suicide's ghost visits the beloved (LIII). Those he loved are dead, and other youths eternally re-live his own experiences (LV). Like the lad that becomes a soldier, one can choose death and face it (LVI). Dick is in the graveyard, and Ned is long in jail, as he comes home to
LudlowLudlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Wales-England border and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of 350 acres and centred on a small hill. Atop this hill is the site of Ludlow Castle and the market place...
(LVIII). Take your pack and go: the journey of life leads endlessly through the night (LX). It matters not if he sleeps among the suicides, or among those who died well - they were all his friends(LXI). Do you mock his melancholy thoughts? He has tasted them like
MithridatesMithridatism is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts. The word derives from Mithridates VI, the King of Pontus, who so feared being poisoned that he regularly ingested small doses, aiming to develop immunity...
, and shall die old (LXII). Perhaps these poems are not fashionable, but they will always please other lads like him (LXIII).
Parodies
The uniform style and tone of
A Shropshire Lad make it an easy target for parody, as in this example by
Humbert WolfeHumbert Wolfe CB CBE , was an Italian-born English poet, man of letters and civil servant, from a Jewish family background, his father being a German Jew and his mother an Italian Jew .He was one of the most popular authors of the 1920s...
:
- When lads have done with labour
- In Shropshire, one will cry
- "Let's go and kill a neighbour,"
- And t'other answers "Aye!"
- So this one kills his cousins,
- And that one kills his dad;
- And, as they hang by dozens
- At Ludlow, lad by lad,
- Each of them one-and-twenty,
- All of them murderers,
- The hangman mutters: "Plenty
- Even for Housman's verse."
and this, by Sir
Hugh KingsmillHugh Kingsmill Lunn , who used the pseudonym Hugh Kingsmill, was a versatile British writer and journalist.-Life:Hugh Kingsmill was born in London and educated at Harrow School and the University of Oxford...
, which, according to
Cyril AlingtonCyril Argentine Alington was an English educationalist, scholar, cleric, and prolific author. He was the headmaster of both Shrewsbury School and Eton College. He also served as chaplain to King George V and as Dean of Durham....
writing in Poets at Play, Housman described as 'the only good parody' of
A Shropshire Lad:
- What, still alive at twenty-two,
- A clean upstanding chap like you?
- Why, if your throat is hard to slit,
- Slit your girl's and swing for it!
- Like enough you won't be glad
- When they come to hang you, lad,
- But bacon's not the only thing
- That's cured by hanging from a string.
- When the blotting pad of night
- Sucks the latest drop of light,
- Lads whose job is still to do
- Shall whet their knives and think of you.
Legacy
There are numerous references and memorialisations of this poem in literature and art. One example is a wall hanging
A Shropshire Lad located in
St Laurence Church, LudlowSt Laurence Church, Ludlow is a parish church in the Church of England in Ludlow.-Background:The parish church was established as a Norman place of worship in association with the founding of Ludlow in the 11th century AD. This parish church in Shropshire, England contains an extensive set of...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The collection was also commemorated by the Railway company Wrexham & Shropshire when they named
Class 67The Class 67 locomotives were built from 1999 to 2000 by Alstom in Valencia, Spain under sub-contract from General Motors Diesel in Canada.- Overview :...
67012
A Shropshire Lad after running a competition in the
Shropshire StarThe Shropshire Star is a regional newspaper covering the whole of Shropshire, plus parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, the Llangollen area and northern Powys in the United Kingdom...
Newspaper.
External links