A Shropshire Lad

74 pp. A Shropshire Lad is a collection of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman, published in 1896. Selling slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the poems to music less than ten years after their first appearance, and many parodists have satirised Housman's themes and poetic style.The collection begins with an imperial theme by paying tribute to the Shropshire lads who have died as soldiers in the service of The Queen Empress, as her golden jubilee (1887) is celebrated with a beacon bonfire on Clee Hill (I). There is little time for a lad to live and enjoy the spring (II). Death awaits the soldier (III–IV). Maids are not always kind (V–VI) and the farmer also comes to the grave (VII). Some lads murder their brothers and are hanged (VIII–IX). The spring's promise of love and renewal may be false (X). The ghost of a lad dead of grief begs the consolation of a last embrace (XI). Unattainable love leaves the lad helpless and lost (XIII–XVI). The playing of a game of cricket or football consoles a broken heart (XVII). But on this dubious sentiment Edith Sitwell commented acidly, "If he means to say that cricket, and cricket alone, has prevented men from committing suicide, then their continuation on this earth seems hardly worthwhile."[11]--Wikipedia