A Shropshire Lad (English Journeys)
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Review
Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award 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. --AudioFile
Published in 1896, Housman's theme of early death became particularly poignant during the Great War. His boy soldiers follow the bugle's call to where the 'dropping dead are thick', and where one suffering 'not an ill for mending' shoots himself. Housman's rural 'land of lost content' with its ancient history, larks and daffodils and its (usually thwarted) young loves of lads and lasses echoes in nostalgic listeners' hearts. Samuel Wests's brogue brings out the Shropshire Lad's touching simplicity, and Housman's haunting rhythms and rhymes. --The Oldie
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. --AudioFile --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Published in 1896, Housman's theme of early death became particularly poignant during the Great War. His boy soldiers follow the bugle's call to where the 'dropping dead are thick', and where one suffering 'not an ill for mending' shoots himself. Housman's rural 'land of lost content' with its ancient history, larks and daffodils and its (usually thwarted) young loves of lads and lasses echoes in nostalgic listeners' hearts. Samuel Wests's brogue brings out the Shropshire Lad's touching simplicity, and Housman's haunting rhythms and rhymes. --The Oldie
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. --AudioFile --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Product Description
A collection of sixty-three short poems, 'A Shropshire Lad' lingers on themes of youthfulness and mortality, taking as its setting a Shropshire half imagined by the poet, and thereby rendered all the more idyllic. In strikingly simple verses, including the famous stanzas known as 'When I was one-and-twenty', Housman creates a beautifully nostalgic, even wistful poem, haunted by considerations of the transience of youth in a society in which young men are sent to war and to work. This volume makes a valuable cultural addition to a society in which such themes remain so current.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This collection of 60 odd poems is the finest I've ever read. They deal with a world that has long since gone (possibly even at the time they were written), and yet avoid sentimentality and rose tinted nostalgia. Country people live hard lives where premature death is ever present, they move to London in search of work or join the army and die on the other side of the world.
This is what makes these poems special, the fact that Housman gives you the honest truth. He has the ability to present the world as it is, and can write in a style that is clear and accessible and at the same time incredibly beautiful.
If you only read one book of poetry in your life, this is the one.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have found the poems of my Father - the misquoted ones - incomplete always - jumbled and retreating in my memory until now. Lines of sadness - of unfulfilled lives - and loves mostly never realised as the subjects leave the rural idyll of Shropshire - brilliant and simple poetry but sad. The Dover Thrift edition is unabridged and has a usefull index to first lines. A few notes on some of the local references are invaluable in this gem. Superb value and quality.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I know it's a cliche, but five stars really does not do this book justice. Not many people know the trouble AEH went to in order to publish this book, but all I can say is that I, along with countless others, am glad he took that trouble.
Some of Housman's finest poetry is in here (although his best for me are in More Poems). But after you've read March, or The True Lover, or 'White in the moon the long road lies', you'll want to discover the rest of this remarkable man's work, a man whose troubled and luckless life caused him to produce some of the finest poems in the English language.
This book is also great value..
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fine readings but some disappointment
Samuel West is a fine reader on the Naxos Audiobook compact disc edition of the complete A E Housman "A Shropshire Lad" poems. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hywel James
Amazing Amazon !
This collection of nostalgic poetry is magical. Thought-provoking and deeply moving, Houseman's outlook on life is quite heart-wrenching at times. Read more
Published 8 months ago by CHATTERBOX
laddish!
Great spoken voice...slightly harsh accent only adds to the atmosphere....great to read lyrics and follow the spoken word...useful that he also announces stanza.
Published 9 months ago by appleanna
Love the poems, wish I bought a better edition
This is a review of the Dover Thrift edition. I have given this edition 3 stars because, although I love the poems, I wish I had bought a better edition with a proper introduction... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Peasant
A great poet who offers perfect gems in slender volumes
A couple of years ago, I was appalled to discover that the top one hundred hits on Amazon US under the heading "A. E. Read more
Published 21 months ago by L. E. Cantrell
Lads don't have fun
What, still alive at 22,
A clean upstanding chap like you?
Why, if your throat is hard to slit,
Slit your girl's and swing for it! Read more
A clean upstanding chap like you?
Why, if your throat is hard to slit,
Slit your girl's and swing for it! Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2009 by booksetc
Glorious
This book contains housman's arguably best poem. It captures the spirit of a country lad perfectly and it can be both poignant and thought provoking at the same time.
Published on 23 Feb 2001 by maysy@daisy84.freeserve.co.uk
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