A.E. Housman was a British scholar and poet. He attended Oxford University where he studied classical literature and philosophy. He later worked as a patent clerk where he studied Greek and Latin in his spare time. Housman went on to become a professor of Latin at University College London. His poetry was known for its romantic and melancholy tone stemming from personal grief over his mother's death and an unrequited love. Some of his most famous poems include "To an Athlete Dying Young" and "When I Was One-and-Twenty."
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A.e. housman
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2. 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
3. Housman‟s Writing
Personal grief Bitter undertones to poetry
Mother died when he was 12
Had 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”
4. Literary Terms: Review
Feet: combination of syllables in poetry
Iambic: unstressed, stressed
The time ; trapeze
“To be or not to be”
Trochaic: stressed, unstressed
Morning ; sadness
“Tyger, Tyger, burning bright”
5. 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)
6. “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?
7. “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.”
8. 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.