On this day in 1859 the English poet Alfred Edward (A. E.) Housman was born.

He is best remembered today for his lyrical and evocative poetry especially that set in Shropshire where he grew up. His collection of poems entitled A Shropshire Lad is especially well known. Housman always considered his poetry second to his academic work – he was a professor of Latin at Cambridge. Throughout his life he struggled with feelings for other men and was sympathetic towards the difficulties of Oscar Wilde. Much of his poetry relates to a golden age in the countryside, before the First World War. Here is his poem, On Wenlock Edge:

On Wenlock Edge the wood’s in trouble;
His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
And thick on Severn snow the leaves.
‘Twould blow like this through holt and hanger
When Uricon the city stood:
‘Tis the old wind in the old anger,
But then it threshed another wood.
Then, ’twas before my time, the Roman
At yonder heaving hill would stare:
The blood that warms an English yeoman,
The thoughts that hurt him, they were there.
There, like the wind through woods in riot,
Through him the gale of life blew high;
The tree of man was never quiet:
Then ’twas the Roman, now ’tis I.
The gale, it plies the saplings double,
It blows so hard, ’twill soon be gone:
To-day the Roman and his trouble
Are ashes under Uricon.

 

Today I accept responsibility for myself and my life.