Farewell to Barn and Stack and Tree
- A.E. Housman
-
A.E. Housman was a popular poet and was born in 1859 in Worcestershire England. He began his
life as a clerk in the patent office for eleven years. Meanwhile Housman was making his name in
the field of textual criticism by being engaged in some serious study works and research in the
British museum. In 1896 he published A Shropshire Lad a compilation of his poetry collection
consisting of his sixty-three poems. In 1911 he became the professor of Latin in Cambridge and a
fellow of Trinity College. In 1936 he passed away in a nursing home in his sleep.
In this poem A.E. Houseman uses traditional ballad style. A ballad is a narrative poem which tells
the story of some dramatic happenings involving violent human emotions. Usually the narration
in a ballad is not straight forward story-telling from beginning to end - the story in a ballad is
communicated in a few dramatic word pictures with vivid details with much of the actual
happenings let to be learnt by implication.
This poem tells a story of conflict and death as in many traditional ballads. A young man has killed
his brother. We are not told why; the poet has focused his interest on the state of mind of the young
man. This state of mind is given to us through the words of the young man. The whole poem is
this young murderer's farewell to a friend named Terence.
Overview
setting – pastoral
structure – ballad form
Rhyme scheme – ABAB
Tone – nostalgic, remorseful
Theme – sudden impulse brings grief and regret
“Farewell to barn and stack and tree,
Farewell to Severn shore.
Terence, look your last at me,
For I come home no more.
anaphora – farewell (delaying his farewell, he is not willing to leave but has to)
anastrophe – look your last at me (inversion of natural order of words, suggesting his hesitation
or confusion)
assonance – for I come home no more (emphasizes about his departure)
enjambment – run on line (forces reader to go through the lines to know what happens next;
increases pace and suspense in the poem)
alliteration – seven shore
farewell (good bye in old English) bidding goodbye to inanimate objects suggests that he avoids
human contacts and they have a close connection to his life.
Severn – is the largest river in UK
In the beginning the reader is seen a farewell speech of a speaker whose words are directly
presented as direct speech form. He bids farewell to inanimate objects and places: which must be
very close to his life. His intention of not returning is clearly shown by his repetitive utterances.
Reader may feel sympathetic about him and be curious to know what really has happened. His
hesitation is an implication that he has made the decision without his will. His friend Terence
seems to be a closer friend of him as he bids farewell to him in an intimate way.
“The sun burns on the half-mown hill,
By now the blood is dried;
And Maurice amongst the hay lies still
And my knife is in his side.
tactile imagery: sun burns on the half mown hill (reader feels the heat of the sun which dried the
blood)
visual imagery: blood is dried/Maurice lies still among the hay/knife in his side
personification – sun burns (it too has word play, if we put son instead of sun, it implies the
suffer and grief of the brother who killed his brother)
metaphor – sun burns (in metaphorical level sun burns means the midday)
symbol – half mown hill, blood (half mown suggests that the boys have completed only a part of
their lives, one is dead by now and other has ruined his life, blood is a symbol to death)
euphemism – Maurice amongst the hay lies still / my knife is in his side (The effect of death and
killing is reduced to imply that the brother has committed the crime unintentionally, he repents
over his work)
anastrophe – Maurice amongst the hay lies still. (shows his reluctance to reveal his crime)
anaphora – and (shows urgency)
enjambment – 3rd and 4th line (forces reader to read the next line quickly to resolve a problem)
here reader finds out who killed Maurice.
alliteration – half mown hill
possessive pronoun – my (shows that he admits his crime)
Second stanza half - reveals the secret behind his departure. He has murdered a person called
Maurice and he confesses that he is the murderer. The time and place of death is hinted as
somewhere before noon as now the blood is dried and the hill is too half mown. His hesitation and
the way he reveals the death of Maurice suggests that he has not planned this crime. The reader is
kept at the edge of seats to know more about the incident.
“My mother thinks us long away;
‘Tis time the field were mown.
She had two sons at rising day,
To-night she’ll be alone.
dramatic irony – my mother thinks us long away. (reader and the narrator knows what has really
happened but mother does not know about the tragedy)
word pun – son (sun; son can be replaced with the word sun that gives a sense too, mother had
two suns to enlighten her life but after this incident her life is going to be filled with darkness)
symbol – night (night is a symbol for hardships or danger)
juxtaposition – they were to mow the lawn but one killed the other. /she had two sons at rising
day, to-night she’ll be alone
subjunctive – were (shows the inability or improbability of something to happen)
metaphor – rising day (refers to the morning)
Possessive Pronoun – my (Possessive nature is shown by possessive pronoun; this might be the
actual cause for his sudden impulse to kill his brother)
Third stanza further reveals about the relationship between the victim and the culprit. He is his
own brother! (Killing a brother is called a fratricide.) Mother is yet unaware of the plight of any
of her sons. The mother’s uncertain future is brought out as she has lost both her sons. His concern
and grief about the plight of mother is too revealed.
“And here’s a bloody hand to shake,
And oh, man, here’s good-bye;
We’ll sweat no more on scythe and rake,
My bloody hands and I.
metaphor – bloody hand (He introduces his hands are stained with death; his crime)
imagery – bloody hand
commas and pauses – shows that he is getting emotional.
His remorse is clearly visible in his confession calling his hands are blood soaked and admitting
that he can never go back to his previous life. He is repenting over his actions which resulted him
to lose his way of life forever.
“I wish you strength to bring you pride,
And love to keep you clean,
And I wish you luck, come Lammastide,
At racing on the green.
anaphora – and (increases the pace of the poem, the narrator wants to finish the story quickly)
juxtaposition – bring you pride/ love to keep you clean (he contrasts his stained life with his
hope his friend to have a clean life)
symbol – green (green symbolizes better life)
Lammastide – a holiday celebrated on August 1st to mark the wheat harvest
His concern for his friend a better future sharply contrasts with his lost future. Because of his
crime, he can never be clean nor proud. His future intention to meet his friend in Lammastide is
hinted here showing the intimate friendship they share.
“Long for me the rick will wait,
And long will wait the fold,
And long will stand the empty plate,
And dinner will be cold.”
anaphora – and long, and (emphasizes his grief and his reluctance to leave the place where he
grew and familiar to)
imagery – empty plate
symbol – empty plate (suggests his uncertain or empty life in the future)
the simple future form will – has a positive remark that one day he hopes to come back home
His nostalgic and remorseful feeling is clearly visible by his worry to leave his familiar places
and farm. He craves for the lost- warmth of the family and worries about what might happen next
in his home. However, this provides an anticlimax to the tragedy where the culprit understands
the depth of his crime. Therefore, this poem is in a way an eye-opener of the reader to think
before act.