ALFRED EDWARDHOUSMAN

A. E. Housman

1859-1936 Attended Oxford University

Classical literature, philosophy Worked in Patent Office

Studied Greek and Latin at night Latin Professor- University

College in London

Housman’s Writing

Personal grief Bitter undertones to poetryMother died when he was 12Had an unrequited love

Romantic, melancholy writing Goal = “transfuse emotion”

“Poetry should affect a reader like a shiver down the spine or a punch in the stomach”

Literary Terms: Review

Feet: combination of syllables in poetry

Iambic: unstressed, stressedThe time ; trapeze“To be or not to be”

Trochaic: stressed, unstressedMorning ; sadness“Tyger, Tyger, burning bright”

Literary Terms: Review

Meter: determined by the number and length of feet in a line

Trimeter: 3 feet in a line Tetrameter: 4 feet in a line Pentameter: 5 feet in a line

Your sonnets = iambic pentameter

(2 syllables per foot, 5 feet per line =

10 syllables per line)

“To an Athlete Dying Young”

1. Is the meter trimeter, tetrameter, or pentameter?

2. (1) Why are they carrying this man?

3. (2) Now why are they carrying this man?

4. (3) What does the speaker mean by “Early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose”?

5. (4) Name 2 benefits of dying young.

6. (5) Name 1 benefit of dying young.

7. (7) Who will come to see him; what will they find?

8. Does Housman really mean what he says?

“When I Was One-and-Twenty”

1. What advice did the speaker get?

2. What does the speaker mean by “But I was one-and-twenty, / No use to talk to me”?

3. What did he receive in exchange for his heart?

4. How do we know from the last two lines that Housman is mocking the speaker?

“And I am two-and-twenty,

And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true.”

Classwork Choose one of these types of poems to write a

similar one yourself.

1. “To an Athlete Dying Young”-Console someone who has died or suffered a loss by giving reasons why they are better off, based on what they accomplished in life.

-Write 14 lines in iambic or trochaic tetrameter.

2. “When I was One-and-Twenty”-Imagine you received advice at a young age but did not take it. Describe the advice and what the result was.

-Write 16 lines in iambic or trochaic trimeter.