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Housman was born in 1859 near Fockbury, Worcestershire, England.
Housman was the first-born of 7 children, all of which looked at Housman as their role model. Alfred’s father was a tax collector and his mother was a housewife. Alfred loved his father but not nearly enough as his mother. Alfred shared a close relationship with his mother up until her death. The death of his mother was the cause of great disquietude which lead to his depression, which stamps all of his works. Housman attended the acclaimed Bromsgrove School and despite the early contention in his life me maintained a healthy academic resume. Bromsgrove is where Housman discovered his consummate skill at writing poetry. Housman won several poetry awards while attending Bromsgrove. Housman gained acceptance into St. John’s college, Oxford. At Oxford Housman accelerated far above the other students in his graduating class, and was poised to graduate at the top of his class. While at Oxford Housman’s outcast status became apparent he was isolated from the other students, not willing to interact in any social activities. Housman only had 2 friends, his roommates Moses Jackson and A. W. Pollard. Housman also experienced sexual feeling for other males, especially his roommate Moses. Finally Housman confronted his roommate Moses Jackson and expressed his true feelings for him. Housman told Moses he had sexual feeling toward him, but Housman was quickly rejected when Moses told Housman he was heterosexual. This led Housman to fail his final exams, and leave Oxford with no degree. This was Housman’s first interaction with rejection and he didn’t respond too well. Mosses still remained Housman’s friend even with his homosexual feelings. Housman went and became a teacher for a short period of time, then gained the strength to obtain a degree from Oxford. Housman accomplished his goal and Moses offered Housman a job at a patient office and they still remained roommates. It was at the patient office that Housman grew found of the Latin language and spent extra time studying, and altering Latin works. His mastery of the language grew so expansive, he began correcting works and writing for Latin journals. The writing Housman submitted to these journals became so popular, that scholars became increasingly interested in Housman and finally offered him a professorship of Latin at University College London and he accepted the position. It was around this time when Moses married and moved to India, leaving Housman behind. Housman was in a somber mood, and grew into a depression which isolated him further from society. He was in this mood because he felt as if he would never experience love. This was the reason Housman started writing in his notebooks, in his notebooks Housman wrote poems which would compose the praised A Shropshire Lad, which was a collection of 63 poems that Housman wrote. The poems took the despairing tone that most of his futures works would also take, they were filled with the themes of young death, lost love, time and war. He grew inspiration for A shropshire Lad from William Shakespeare’s collection of songs and Heinrich Heine, a German Romantic poet, but surprisingly left a Latin influence out. Shropshire was a country that Housman had never visited while writing the collection of poems but thought it was the perfect image for the style of poems that composed A Shropshire Lad. The poems in A Shrophire Lad matched the themes presented in all of Housmans works. The theme of war was covered with “Far I hear the Bugle Blow” which was about the apprehension a soldier faces when called into battle. Housman addressed the apprehension rather bluntly as seen in 4th stanza lines 13-16 “Therefore, though the best is bad, Stand and do the best, my lad; Stand and fight and see your slain, And take the bullet in your brain.” The theme was also addressed with “The Street Sounds to The Soldiers Tread”, which was also the apprehension a solider faced before battle. The theme of time is presented with the poem “When I was One and Twenty”, which was about a recollection to a past memory, in which a man gave Housman the advice to never give your heart to someone. The poem “Bring in this time less grave to throw” also covered the theme of time. The keynote of lost love is the most apparent in A Shropshire Lad, and can be seen with the poem “This time of year a twelvemonth past”. Which encompassed the story of a man who is recalling what he was doing 12 month ago, which was enjoying the time with his love, who he lost to another man. The themes of youth and dying were covered with Housman’s most prominent poem “To An Athlete Dying Young”. Which was about the story of a young runner that died after winning the town race and breaking the record. Housman never found a publisher for the collection of poems, so he made the decision to publish them himself. His students and contemporaries were amazed at the quantity of poems. Although rather blunt Housman’s works were regarded highly by soldiers and were used as inspiration and a way to cope with the harsh reality of war. It was during the Second Boer War, which was a war the British Empire fought against the independent Boer republics when A Shropshire Lad gained great popularity. It was not only soldiers who were reading Housman’s publications but musicians and scholars were also studying his works. His poems were used as by many composers during his day. After publishing A Shropshire Lad Housman was offered the Kennedy Professorship of Latin at Trinity College, Cambridge and he gladly accepted the position. Housman was to remain here for the rest of his career. Housman still wrote poems but didn’t publish them until 1922 when he heard his long-time friend Moses Jackson was dying. He titled the collection “Last Poems”. The poems were titled “Last Poems”, because Housman felt that they would be the last poems he would live to publish, and they were. Housman died in 1936 and his brother Laurence later published the rest of his poems titled “More Poems”. Although Housmans life was filled with controversy it never inhibited Housman it only was used as inspiration and a reason to continue. Housman although dead is still regarded highly in today’s standards.
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