" These lines are a clear reference to how Housman felt about his homosexual lifestyle, for after his appointment in 1892 as professor of Latin at University College in London, Housman became "convinced that he must live without love" which drove him to become "increasingly reclusive" as a Latin scholar and poet ("A.E. Housman Biography," Internet). Also, Housman makes it quite evident that without love (in this case, the love of another man), his physical self is nothing less than a "dying animal" with a heart consumed by unrequited love and sexual desire. Also, Housman relates that the narrator "knows not what it is," a reference to himself as a gay man who only wishes to be gathered into "the artifice of eternity," with "artifice" symbolizing his desire to escape reality and hid within the confines of eternity. In the last verse, the narrator declares "Once out of nature I shall never take/My bodily form from any natural thing" which symbolizes his desire that once death overtakes him, he does not wish to return as a "natural" entity, yet another example of his homosexual urges and the lack of being loved as a...
However, as a symbol of Housman's ardent appreciation for the ancient Greeks, he wishes to return as something beautiful to the eye, i.e., a form of "hammered gold," perhaps as a statue enameled in gold which sings (or recites poetry) to the "lords and ladies" of ancient Byzantium, songs of the past, the present and the future. As Braithwaite puts it, Shot? So Quick, So Clean an Ending is replete with "a spirit whom life may menace with its contradictions and fatalities, but never dupe (Housman's "artifice") with its circumstance and mystery" (Introduction," Internet).
The "ill for mending" is his homosexuality, a factor shared by the poet, who also knows that society sees this as an ill and that it is not something that can be "repaired." The apparent admiration the poet expresses for the suicide might be seen as based on thoughts he may have himself had about suicide when he discovered his homosexuality and when that was rebuffed by his chosen target.
Victorian literature was remarkably concerned with the idea of childhood, but to a large degree we must understand the Victorian concept of childhood and youth as being, in some way, a revisionary response to the early nineteenth century Romantic conception. Here we must, to a certain degree, accept Harold Bloom's thesis that Victorian poetry represents a revisionary response to the revolutionary aesthetic of Romanticism, and particularly that of Wordsworth. The
twenty by A.E. Housman (1859-1936). From a Shropshire Lad. 1896. The title of poem "When I was one and twenty" by, A.E. Housman, immediately indicates to the reader that the author no longer is "one and twenty," because the first word of the poem "when," dates this age in the past rather than in the present. Also, although the poem ends with a reference to the poet being "twenty-two," and
Dying a premature death may earn him the admiration of his neighbors, but a fully lived life depends on how many lives one has touched instead of the number of medals one has accumulated or the number of victories one has won in his lifetime. The poet's attitude towards death connotes that it seems better to die young and having lived a glorious life than to die old but see
The line breaks in this poem are sudden and create a mood of suspense because the reader must move to the next line to read the rest of the story. When the poet begins counting, we have a sense of something dreadful about to occur. The rhyming in this poem is also effective in that the rhyming words are strong and visual. In the last stanza, the words "luck"
Death in Poetry Ruba Poetry is an effective form of literature wherein the significance and importance of human experience are depicted. Life as people perceive and live it are the most common issues and topics used in poetry, although death is becoming a dominant topic in contemporary poetry because of its enigmatic and subjective quality. Death has many meanings for people: death can be an escape, relief, punishment, pain, suffering, or
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