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
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.
----------------------------------------------
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.
.jpg)
