It is no gift I tender / Because I liked you better - A. E. Housman

It is no gift I tender,
    A loan is all I can;
But do not scorn the lender;
    Man gets no more from man.

Oh, mortal man may borrow
    What mortal man can lend;
And 'twill not end to-morrow,
    Though sure enough 'twill end.

If death and time are stronger,
    A love may yet be strong;
The world will last for longer,
    But this will last for long.

    ---------=o=--------

Because I liked you better
    Than suits a man to say,
It irked you, and I promised
    To throw the thought away.

To put the world between us
    We parted, stiff and dry;
"Good-bye," said you, "forget me."
    "I will, no fear," said I.

If here, where clover whitens
    The dead man's knoll, you pass,
And no tall flower to meet you
    Starts in the trefoiled grass,

Halt by the headstone naming
    The heart no longer stirred,
And say the lad that loved you
    Was one that kept his word  

 

 

A. E. Housman 

1859 - 1936

Alfred Edward Housman (26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. In 1896, he emerged as a poet with A Shropshire Lad, a cycle in which he poses as an unsophisticated and melancholy youth. After a slow start, this captured the imagination of young readers, its preoccupation with early death appealing to them especially during times of war.

In 1922 his Last Poems added to his reputation. Following his death, further poems from his notebooks were published by his brother, Laurence. It was then too, though Housman had made no admission himself, that his sexual orientation began to be questioned.

Despite the conservative nature of the times and his own caution in public life, Housman was quite open in his poetry, and especially in A Shropshire Lad, about his deeper sympathies. In More Poems, he buries his love for Moses Jackson in the very act of commemorating it, as his feelings of love are not reciprocated and must be carried unfulfilled to the grave.

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Alfred EdwardHousman (26 maart 1859 – 30 april 1936) was een Engelse classicus en dichter. In 1896 ontpopte hij zich als dichter met A Shropshire Lad, een cyclus waarin hij zich voordoet als een onbedorven en melancholische jongeling. Na een trage start, sprak in de oorlogsperiode de bundel wel tot de verbeelding van jonge lezers, vooral door het bezig zijn met de gedachte aan een vroege dood.

In 1922 droeg Last Poems bij aan zijn reputatie. Na zijn dood werden nog meer gedichten uit zijn achtergelaten notitieboeken gepubliceerd door zijn broer Laurence. Het was ook toen, hoewel Housman het zelf niet had toegegeven, dat zijn seksuele geaardheid in twijfel werd getrokken.

Ondanks de conservatieve aard van zijn tijd en zijn eigen voorzichtigheid in het openbare leven, was Housman in zijn poëzie, en vooral in A Shropshire Lad, verrassend open over zijn diepere sympathieën. In More Poems herdenkt en begraaft hij symbolisch zijn liefde voor Moses Jackson, omdat zijn gevoelens voor hem onbeantwoord en onvervuld bleven.