The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman

Five stars for the edition; four or perhaps four+ for Houseman's poetry. This is an excellent collection and good value for dollar. It includes the major pieces in a readable, well-bound, inexpensive format. Houseman's output is such that it can be read and enjoyed in a brief period of time, so pour a drink, find the comfy chair and enjoy. Crime writers take note: Houseman's verse may not be uniformly superb, but it contains a number of brilliant passages which have served very nicely as epigraphs for crime novels.

Housman's poetry is very gloomy; considering that all the pictures I saw of him in my high school English IV class looked as if he has a stick shoved up his __. I recommend "To an Athlete Dying Young" number 19 in his collection called A Shropshire Lad. Still strangely relevant since it's first writing way back in 1896, it's just a really good example of really vivid poetry done by a master.

Absolutely necessary reading for any poetry lover. If by some terrible mistake you have so far missed Housman, you should make up for it immediately. Don't waste your time reading reviews, just get the book asap!

I don't know what I'd do without this book. I stumbled on Housman more or less by accident in an anthology and just fell in love -- so much emotion so perfectly crystallized in such lovely little lyrics, beautiful regardless of what connection you make to it. I can't recommend this highly enough; somehow, despite the melancholy, Housman's verse retains a power to comfort and assure in even the most dire of situations. That, I suppose, is why it was written years ago "for those unhappy fellows, unborn and unbegot, for them to read when they're in trouble and I am not."

Housman is a wonderful, lyrical poet. I bought this collection after having seen The Invention of Love on the London stage.Most beautiful of all, to my mind, is the poem entitled "To an Athlete Dying Young". This was the eulogy read by Isak Dinesen at Denys Finch-Hatton's funeral in the movie "Out of Africa". The poem, which was originally included in "A Shropshire Lad" (1896) begins:"The time you won your town the race, We chaired you through the market place. Man and boy stood cheering by and home we brought you shoulder high. Today the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home. And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. Smart lad! to slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose... And round that early laurelled head Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find, unwithered on its curls, A garland. Briefer than a girl's." A very moving and sad poem. Many of Housman's other poems are of a similar, outstanding quality. He was not a prolific poet, but he was certainly a great one. Great pleasure will be found in this collection.