Poetry First a Shropshire Lad (Penguin Classics: Poetry First) [Paperback]

A E Housman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics: Poetry First | Publication Date: July 29, 1999

A series of verses set in the half-imaginary Shropshire, "A Shropshire Lad" is A.E. Housman's most famous collection of poetry. Initially self-published, with little profit, it became hugely popular during the World War I.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Here is something special. To mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Housman's beloved collection, Trafalgar Square has buttressed the text with beautiful wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker and an introduction by scholar Ian Rogerson. All that in a hardcover for the very reasonable price of $9.95 makes this a steal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Housman is a high-water mark of British lyric poetry, and this fine production captures perfectly his strong, melodic beat and decisive rhyme, and his wonderful way with words. Samuel West's cultivated Midlands accent may not be specifically Shropshire, but his voice and reading are true to Housman who was not, after all, some rough Shropshire lad himself but an Oxford don. His Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now and To an Athlete Dying Young are beautifully rendered here. West, you feel, reads poetry as it should be read confidently, with ease and conviction, as if all the world spoke in meter and rhyme. --D.A.W., AudioFile Magazine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (July 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140437185
• ISBN-13: 978-0140437188
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,701,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ghost-like remembrances of forgotten way of life., October 16, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Shropshire Lad (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

the title of 'A Shropshire Lad' indicates both rural specificity and human universality, and it is in the gap between the two that the poems' tension and tragedy lie. they evoke a timeless pastoral world, of streams, plains and roses; of ploughing, carousing and love-making; of villages, churches and football; all belonging to the unchanging cycle of the seasons. In this context man as a type, as a member of a community, is eternal also, not least in the folk idiom in which Housman's classical clarity is decaptively cloaked.

as an individual, however, the 'lad' is insubstantial, doomed to leave or die as rural life continues unchanging without him. Many of the poems are narrated by exiles or ghosts, crushed to find the old routine the same as if they had never existed - the phantom of 'Is my team ploughing?' discovers even his grieving sweetheart now warm in his interlocutor's bed; he of 'Bredon Hill' plans his wedding, only to attend his own funeral.

Housman uses a direct and simple vocabulary and metre with devastating resonances, the very music of the poetry at once rooted in the eternal communal land and yet indicative of sadness and loss. Written in 1896, the irony of death and change in the never-ending countryside was doubled by the reality that the countryside was changing, that the centuries-old lifestyles were being encroached on by industry and modernity - what seemed to be inviolable itself becomes obsolete. in hindsight, a third, poignant irony is added - within 20 years of publication, these lads would be sent to the slaughter in World War One, as previsioned in 'On the idle hill of summer'. One of Housman's greatest admirers, the composer George Butterworth, who wrote two song-cycles based on these beautiful poems, would be one such victim.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cycle of Life as told by A.E. Housman..., January 1, 2003

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: A Shropshire Lad (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

This review refers to the Dover Thrift Edition Paperback of "A Shropshire Lad"....

Without getting too analytical of the poetry itself or the meaning of Housman's works,as I am not a poet myself, I will say that I throughly enjoyed this edition of "A Shropshire Lad". Although Housman's words at times may seem a bit like the antedote to exhilaration, he seems to speak from the heart and wisely about the cycle of life. The never ending scheme of things.The seasons and the earth changing year by year. Young men falling in love, going off to war, coming home wounded, dead, or finding their loves no longer want them. It brought to mind for me, the song by Peter, Paul and Mary "Where Have All The Flowers Gone".

Although these words were first published well over 100 years ago, I found there is still meaning in his words.Many of the lines in this book I found to still be quoted today. For example in poem LVI-"The Day of Battle", he ponders this:

"Comrade, if to turn and fly
Made a soldier never die,
Fly I would, for who would not?
Tis sure no pleasure to be shot

But since the man that runs away
Lives to die another day,
And cowards' funerals, when they come,
Are not wept so well at home,........."

This Dover Thrift Edition is a great value for the price. It contains all sixty-three original poems of "A Shropshire Lad" including XIX-"To An Athlete Dying Young"(which you've heard if you have seen the film "Out of Africa"). It has an index with notes on the text which will clarify some of the names and places Housman uses that might be of geographic or historical value to the reader, and also has an index of the first lines, helpful in finding a specific poem. It's a small lightweight book you can easily throw in your purse, briefcase or even a large pocket, that you can pull out to read while you have time to kill or while traveling. It's something to add to your cart when you need just a little bit more to put you into that free-shipping catagory!

Dover Thrift has many of these little books of great literary works, I plan on adding more to my collection....enjoy....Laurie

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy, entertaining reading, July 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Shropshire Lad (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

Housman is one of those very popular poets that are looked down by your English professor as being low brow and unfit for the elect. If you're the type who claims to belong to these elite, good luck for your choice of a sour life, you should never be caught with this book.

Everybody else, dip in, the water is just fine.

In Housman's poetry, there is sense, and ideas you can understand on first reading. Moreover, there are rare qualities you seldom see nowadays - rhyme, rhythm, correct grammar, proper punctuation, and words spelled so you can confirm from any English dictionary that they were used right.

Be warned however that Housman's themes are repetitious (probably explains why he never wrote much poetry - perhaps he realized he is beginning to sound like a broken record even for the little poetry he was able to write), mostly about the transitoriness of youth and the tender sadness of death. Reading him too much too often is like listening to the greatest hits collection of a minor singer - after the third song, you get tired. But you did enjoy the first two.

When I first bought this book in April 2000, the list price was only $1.00 and Amazon's price was 80c. It was good value then even for someone living in Asia. Now that there's a special surcharge, I guess it's just good value if shipping cost is minimized.

For your money, however, try to find the old edition with line drawings. That was the first time I read Housman, and the line drawings realy enhanced the haunting loneliness of the sad poems.