noisiness. The lover shuts them up as he might the disturbing
prattle of a child: ?Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; I hear you, I will
come (Ricks 73).?
Another recurring theme in Housman?s poetry is the loss of youth and
beauty. Housman?s youth?s sometimes die into nature and become part of the
natural surroundings (Discovering Authors 8). The poem With Rue my Heart is
Laden deals with the fading away of youth and beauty and their burial in nature.
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipped maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipped girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.
In the first stanza the speaker is explaining how his heart is full of sorrow
because all of his friends that were once ?golden?, youthful, and beautiful are all
dead. The adjective ?rose-lipped maiden? is describing the speaker?s lady
friends that were attractive, youthful, and vibrant. The term ?lightfoot lad? is
describing the speaker?s male friends that were handsome, athletic, and strong.
In the second stanza the speaker is describing how the ?lightfoot boys?
now lay next to the ?brooks to broad for leaping? that they could once leap in
their youth. The ?rose-lipped? girls are now ?sleeping? in the ?fields where roses
fade.? These fields used to be beautiful and alive like the maidens once were,
but the fields are also getting old and fading away (Discovering Authors 8).
?In his roles as a classical scholar and poet, Housman exhibited an
unswerving integrity. While this integrity served him well in his classical
endeavors, in his poetry it may have relegated him to a rank below that of the
major poets of his age (Discovering Authors 4). Housman never has been a
fashionable poet, yet he continues to maintain an audience and his reputation
remains steady. The melancholy and pessimism in Housman?s poems capture
the attention of readers and is perhaps the reason why his poetry is still read
and studied today. A.E. Housman was a human figure whose life and career
were often moving as well as extraordinary.
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