A.E. Housman
Family Life
• Alfred Edward Housman was born at Valley
House, Fockbury in Worcestershire in 1859.
• His father was an adviser
• Laurence Housman, a famous novelist and
dramatist was one of his younger brothers. He
attended the finest of school, going to King
Edward’s School, then Bromsgrove, which is 10
miles outside of his city, and then to St. John’s
College. He then attended Oxford where he
failed this final examinations, his entire family
was humiliated and shamed by him.
Education
• He attended the
• He then attended
finest of school,
Oxford where he
attending to:
failed this final
examinations, his
• King Edward’s
entire family was
School
humiliated
and
• Bromsgrove, (10
shamed by him.
miles outside of his
city)
• St. John’s College.
Life After School
• From 1882-1892 he worked at an office in
London.
• During his spare time devoted it to classical
studies.
• He wanted to establish himself as a scholar to
regain his pride.
• In 1892, he was appointed as Professor of Latin
at University City in London, because of his
brilliant articles on classics in journals which
gained him a high reputation in the community.
Teaching Life
• To his students, he
was a very dry and
quiet man
• He shocked all
when he released
his first collection
of poems “A
Shropshire Lad” in
1896.
• The poems, held a shark
contrast between the
romanticism of the poems
and the outward severity
of the Professor
What is a Shropshire Lad?
• A Shropshire Lad is a cycle of poems which
tells of the central character, Terence
Hearsay
• He moves to London, in exile as it were from
his native country.
• They are very personal poems that contain a
lot of Housman’s own emotion and feelings.
• It is the best known literary testament in the
country.
Fame and Fortune
• As his poems became better known, Housman
was surprised to see the number of literary
pilgrimages to see the places that he had made
famous.
• Many of the pilgrimages were surprised to know
that Housman used the name of other places, to
describe a different place.
• Everywhere we traveled, people screamed his
name in the streets, and chased after him, hoping
to hear him speak one of his greatest verses.
His Last Years
• In 1911, Housman was
named Kennedy
Professor of Latin at
Cambridge
• His reputation as a
classic scholar continued
to grow.
• Wrote further Shropshire
poems that were
published in 1922, in his
“Last Poems”
His Death
• He died at Cambridge, but his ashes
were brought back and buried, where
all of his fame began, in Shropshire
near St. Laurence’s Church.
• He was buried beneath a tablet bearing
some of his most famous lines of
poetry.
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.
5
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
10‘
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,
15
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
WHEN I was one-and-twenty A
I heard a wise man say, B
‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas C
But not your heart away; B
Give pearls away and rubies A
But keep your fancy free. B
But I was one-and-twenty, C
No use to talk to me. B
When I was one-and-twenty A
I heard him say again, B
The heart out of the bosom C
Was never given in vain; B
‘Tis paid with sighs a plenty A
And sold for endless rue.’ B
And I am two-and-twenty, C
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true. B
“When I was One-and-Twenty” uses a particular
rhythm, which in this case is called iambic trimeter.
This form of rhythm exaggerates the stresses and
has three stressed syllables in each line. Ex:
“When I was One-and-Twenty” by A.E. Housman is
considered to be a lyrical poem because of it strong
rhythm and has many different forms of literary devices,
including:
• “Give crowns and pounds and guineas” (line 3)assonance
• “But keep your fancy free” (line 6)- alliteration
• This poem speaks about a man who recounts, in his
younger years, a man giving him advice about love. The
man tells him to give all other things away before he
gives away his heart because nothing is harder than
giving away ones heart and no love is without its trials,
but being naive and young, the boy shrugs off the wise
man’s words thinking that he knows better. The man,
thinking about this encounter when he was young now
realizes that the advice given was completely true, but
having heard it when he was young caused him to
believe he knew better at the time.
• This poem comments on the nature of love and
furthermore, Housman’s idea of love.
• Housman, A.E. A Shropshire Lad. London: K. Paul, Trench,
Treubner, 1896; Bartleby.com, 1999. <http://www.bartleby.com/123.
2/18/08
• Housman, A.E.. "XIII. "When I was one-and-twenty..."." 19 Feb 2008
<http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/alfrededwardhousma
n/poems/ashropshirelad/wheniwasoneandtwenty.html>.
• Hochman, Jhan . "When I Was One-and-Twenty (Criticism)." 19 Feb
2008 <http://www.answers.com/topic/when-i-was-one-and-twentypoem-8>
• "Rhythm." 19 Feb 2008
<http://users.uma.maine.edu/AKurth/Pages/Poetryrhythm.html>.
• Dickins, Gordon . "An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire ."
Shropshire Libraries 19 Feb 2008 <http://www3.shropshirecc.gov.uk/housman.htm>.