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ericaroseeberhart's review against another edition
4.0
I will likely remember this book for a number of reasons, none of which align. It's the book I read instead of watching the presidential address regarding the 2019 government shutdown/wall funding, because as a federal contractor facing our household losing half its income, I'm too enraged to watch such drivel. This book, its poems, was all the more pleasurable and stimulating. It's also the book I received from a dear friend who loves it so much that it makes me love it too. Her post its indicating favorite poems made it all the more pleasurable and I think I may adopt the habit with my own favorite book of poems and send along copies with little notes within in the future. It's also the first book I completed in the new year.
By far, my favorite poem was The Merry Guide followed by Easter Hymn. Often when I read poetry I'll read it quietly or occasionally murmur the verbiage but with these two I returned to the poem after my initial read through and read them out loud not once, but twice, and I've gone back to them since.
It's always such a pleasure to discover new-to-me poets and even all the better that it was a discovery through love and appreciation from one book worm to another. I think the very emotion behind my ownership of the book made me like it all the more and I'm glad to have read it; I've come away feeling more well rounded, which is generally a goal of mine when reading poetry.
By far, my favorite poem was The Merry Guide followed by Easter Hymn. Often when I read poetry I'll read it quietly or occasionally murmur the verbiage but with these two I returned to the poem after my initial read through and read them out loud not once, but twice, and I've gone back to them since.
It's always such a pleasure to discover new-to-me poets and even all the better that it was a discovery through love and appreciation from one book worm to another. I think the very emotion behind my ownership of the book made me like it all the more and I'm glad to have read it; I've come away feeling more well rounded, which is generally a goal of mine when reading poetry.
moniwicz's review against another edition
2.0
What Houseman is most famous for; his jaunty, morose, violent, tongue-in-cheek adventures of A Shropshire Lad (and this inhabited world) soon became tiresome, distasteful, and dull to me the more I read. A few poems of this style may have been amusing if he had known when to stop. This was not helped, either, by his indefatigably cryptic style in many of his violent verses.
An example of this repeating gruesome twaddle would be:
...Here is a knife like other knives,
That cost me eighteen pence.
I need but stick it in my heart
And down will come the sky,
And earth's foundations will depart
And all you folk will die.
I was surprisingly charmed, however, by his very different and much more simple poems on the real world - descriptions of wartime brotherly sacrifice and camaraderie (much based on WW1), the charms of a pretty village girl, or the nostalgia of lively country lads.
When first my way to fair I took
Few pence in purse had I,
And long I used to stand and look
At things I could not buy
or:
I sought them far and found them,
The sure, the straight, the brave,
the hearts I lost my own too,
The souls I could not save.
They braced their belts bout them,
They crossed in ships the sea,
They sought and found six feet of ground,
And there they died for me.
An example of this repeating gruesome twaddle would be:
...Here is a knife like other knives,
That cost me eighteen pence.
I need but stick it in my heart
And down will come the sky,
And earth's foundations will depart
And all you folk will die.
I was surprisingly charmed, however, by his very different and much more simple poems on the real world - descriptions of wartime brotherly sacrifice and camaraderie (much based on WW1), the charms of a pretty village girl, or the nostalgia of lively country lads.
When first my way to fair I took
Few pence in purse had I,
And long I used to stand and look
At things I could not buy
or:
I sought them far and found them,
The sure, the straight, the brave,
the hearts I lost my own too,
The souls I could not save.
They braced their belts bout them,
They crossed in ships the sea,
They sought and found six feet of ground,
And there they died for me.
stinekristin's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Death, and War
Moderate: Grief and Violence
cono44's review
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
A Shropshire Lad itself is great. The other poems in this edition are also pretty good, some are incredible, some are just fine. I liked the lecture at the end. Housman seems like an interesting guy.
P.S Poem 35 from A Shropshire Lad is probably one of my favourite poems of all time:
On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the flow of streams,
Far I hear the steady drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams.
Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder
Soldiers marching, all to die.
East and west on fields forgotten
Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
None that go return again.
Far the calling bugles hollo,
High the screaming fife replies,
Gay the files of scarlet follow:
Woman bore me, I will rise.
P.S Poem 35 from A Shropshire Lad is probably one of my favourite poems of all time:
On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the flow of streams,
Far I hear the steady drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams.
Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder
Soldiers marching, all to die.
East and west on fields forgotten
Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
None that go return again.
Far the calling bugles hollo,
High the screaming fife replies,
Gay the files of scarlet follow:
Woman bore me, I will rise.
alibubba's review against another edition
5.0
I fell in love with A.E. Housman's poetry when I was a freshman in high school. Easily my favorite poet, his written word often leaves me with goosebumps and tears welling up in my eyes. That, to me, is the sign of true talent. I cannot say enough about this man's work! Buy the book. You won't be sorry.
clarentium's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
Powerful poems which incorporate themes of love, home, and war
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