Best Housman Poems
I knew a land not far from here
where stories kissed goodnight
- a land like Oz before the storm
when all was black and white.
Yet now as ruby tinted mists
add colour to that time
- a distant land of spires and farms
awakes as church bells chime.
I see a land beyond the clouds
where people stop to talk
- a land of blue remembered hills
where poets often walk.
I see a land from way up high
where children still believe
- a land of snow where brass bands play
on every Christmas Eve.
Those happy highways where I went
had homes with open doors
- and lemon drops and chimney tops
in worlds that had no wars.
Mayflies
by Michael R. Burch
These standing stones have stood the test of time
but who are you
and what are you
and why?
As brief as mist, as transient, as pale ...
Inconsequential mayfly!
Perhaps the thought of love inspired hope?
Do midges love? Do stars bend down to see?
Do gods commend the kindnesses of ants
to aphids? Does one eel impress the sea?
Are mayflies missed by mountains? Do the stars
regret the glowworm’s stellar mimicry
the day it dies? Does not the world go on
as if it’s no great matter, not to be?
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose.
And yet somehow you’re everything to me.
Originally published by Clementine Unbound. Keywords/Tags: May, mayfly, mayflies, spring, time, daffodils, absence, missing you, mist, transient, transience, pale, inconsequential, stars, sea, everything, universe, A. E. Housman quote
If Housman lived today and spoke of Terrance,
would rhyme and structure be his "stupid stuff?"
If he could wax poetic now,
what would it be that killed the cow?
Can image and the music be enough?
Were you to walk a wood some snowy eve,
a painting in your head by Robert Frost,
revise and take the liberty;
set his restrictive musing free,
how much of the meaning would be lost?
Paintings by Monnet can fill the senses;
a quiet Redlin sunset can delight.
Even though it's fairly certain
Monnet's colors match the curtain,
does either painter have it wrong, or right?
The Clockhouse's A. E. Housman Suite at Halloween
Alfred Edward Housman's apparition
Recites "A quieter place than Clun(ton)
Where doomsday may thunder and lighten"*
A E Housman's ghost does frighten
In the Arvon Clockhouse Retreat
Downstairs, stays a lass with time to write
Upstairs, stays a poet in the A E Housman Suite
Housman's ghost is an awesome sight
Ghostly pacing, floorboards creak mysteriously
The lass disturbed in the night
Hearing strange noises clairvoyantly
Seeks answers in the daylight
Is it a Halloween trick or a treat?
* Poem 50 (L) from A E Housman's "A Shropshire Lad"
Poets Speak of Us
Shakespeare once said,
"Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong."
Blake once said,
"So when she speaks, the voice of Heaven I hear;
So when we walk, nothing impure comes near;
Each field seems Eden, and each calm retreat;
Each village seems the haunt of holy feet."
Auden once said,
"If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.”
Housman once said,
"I shall not vex you with my face,
Henceforth, my love, for aye.
So take me in your arms a space,
Before the east is grey."
Lawrence once said,
"Since I lost you, my darling, the sky has come near,
And I am of it, the small sharp stars are quite near."
A Beast once said,
"Do leave me by your side,
And no one shall ever recite while you speak.
Do leave me by your heart,
And no one shall ever hurt your soul so meek."
Love & Trust,
B.B.
Beyond the moor and mountain crest
In valleys green and still
Ten thousand times I've done my best
And all about the idle hill.
When first my way to fair I took
Beneath the blue of day
For willows in the icy brook
In valleys miles away.
When in the moon the long road lies
And down the sighing wind in vain
Spent in star-defeated sighs
And what's to show for all my pain?
Oh, when I was in love with you
To-morrow I shall miss you less
The knot that makes one flesh of two
For a faith the world confessed.
When I Was One-and-Twenty
A. E. Housman
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.”
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
“The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.”
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
"A Parody: daughter's inspiration to be like her mom--who love to laugh," ... by The Poet.
When I was two-and-twenty
I heard the foolish say,
Now we know a girl--chose he,
wants to still look pretty,
"Slap, then punch that Golden Rue,
till it goes back to school;
But I was too-dang-pretty,
and guys just wanted me.
So back I'm two-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"Your tummy tuck, bosom's out
You just marred Mommy's name;
'Was paid by guys with money
told me, look like Mommy."
And I am FREE-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.