Alfred Edward Housman was an English classical scholar and poet. He showed early promise as a student at the University of Oxford, but he failed his final examination in literae humaniores and took employment as a patent examiner in London in 1882. In his spare time he engaged in textual criticism of classical Greek and Latin texts, and his publications as an independent researcher earned him a high academic reputation and appointment as professor of Latin at University College London in 1892. In 1911 he became the Kennedy Professor of Latin at the University of Cambridge. Today he is regarded as one of the foremost classicists of his age and one of the greatest classical scholars of any time. His editions of Juvenal, Manilius, and Lucan are still considered authoritative.
George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer who was best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from A Shropshire Lad. He was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry during the fighting at Pozières in the First World War, and died in the Battle of the Somme.
A Shropshire Lad is a collection of 63 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.
"Blue Remembered Hills" is the 14th episode of ninth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 30 January 1979. "Blue Remembered Hills" was written by Dennis Potter, directed by Brian Gibson and produced by Kenith Trodd.
Wenlock Edge is a limestone escarpment near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England and a site of special scientific interest because of its geology. It is over 19 miles (31 km) long, running southwest to northeast between Craven Arms and Much Wenlock, and is roughly 1,083 feet above sea level. The deciduous woodland which runs along it covers much of the steep slopes of the escarpment and in parts it is very well preserved.
Bredon Hill is a hill in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Evesham in the Vale of Evesham. The summit of the hill is in the parish of Kemerton, and it extends over parts of eight other parishes. The hill is geologically part of the Cotswolds and lies within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. However, it now stands isolated in the Vale of Evesham due to natural causes.
Last Poems (1922) was the last of the two volumes of poems which A. E. Housman published during his lifetime. Of the 42 poems there, seventeen were given titles, a greater proportion than in his previous collection, A Shropshire Lad (1896). Although it was not quite so popular with composers, the majority of the poems there have been set to music.
The Far Country is a novel by Nevil Shute, first published in 1952.
"The Trees They Grow So High" is a Scottish folk song. The song is known by many titles, including "The Trees They Do Grow High", "Daily Growing", "Long A-Growing" and "Lady Mary Ann".
Charles Wilfred Leslie Orr, generally known as C. W. Orr, was an English composer. He is particularly noted for his songs, though his output was small. He wrote only 35 songs in 82 years, 24 of them setting words by A. E. Housman.
Blood's a Rover is a 2009 crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy. It follows American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand as the final volume of Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy. A 10,000-word excerpt was published in the December 2008 issue of Playboy. The book was released on September 22, 2009.
Sir John Lade, 2nd Baronet was a prominent member of Regency society, notable as an owner and breeder of racehorses, as an accomplished driver, associated with Samuel Johnson's circle, and one of George IV's closest friends. While that monarch was still Prince Regent, Lade attracted high society scorn for the extent of his debts and his choice of marriage to low-born beauty Letitia, who was generally supposed to have been the mistress of the executed highwayman John Rann and the Regent's next-youngest brother, the Duke of York.
When I Was One-and-Twenty is the first line of the untitled Poem XIII from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (1896), but has often been anthologised and given musical settings under that title. The piece is simply worded but contains references to the now superseded coins guineas and crowns. It is the monologue of a young man of twenty-two who reflects on the truth of the advice given him a year before not to give his heart away in love. Writing to his publisher in December, 1920, Housman scornfully observed of an illustrated edition of the poem, “How like an artist to think that the speaker is a woman!” A heterosexual male reading could still be given the lament then because, at the time, Housman's homosexuality was unsuspected. Later the possibility that the poem refers to Housman's unrequited love for a fellow male student at university has been suggested.
"The Farmer's Boy" is a traditional English folk song or ballad, listed as number 408 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It has been arranged as a military march.
On Wenlock Edge is a song cycle composed in 1909 by Ralph Vaughan Williams for tenor, piano and string quartet. The cycle comprises settings of six poems from A. E. Housman's 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad. A typical performance lasts around 22 minutes. It was premiered by Gervase Elwes, Frederick Kiddle and the Schwiller Quartet on 15 November 1909 in the Aeolian Hall, London. It was later orchestrated by the composer in a version first performed on 24 January 1924. Subsequent editions show a measure excised from the final movement (Clun): the third measure from the end. The Boosey and Hawkes 1946 score notes indicates this in a footnote on the last page. The cycle was recorded by Elwes, Kiddle and the London String Quartet in 1917.
Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad is a song cycle for baritone and piano composed in 1911 by George Butterworth (1885–1916). It consists of settings of six poems from A. E. Housman's 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad.
The Land of Lost Content is a song cycle for voice and piano composed in 1920–21 by John Ireland (1879–1962). It consists of settings of six poems by A. E. Housman from his 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad.
After A. E. Housman’s death in 1936, his brother Laurence was made his literary executor and over the next two years published further selections of poems from his manuscripts: in 1936 More Poems and, between 1937-9, Additional Poems, although the latter were never printed as a separate edition. As much more of Housman's earlier writing was brought to light, its autobiographical nature clarified his suppressed homosexuality. There are also recognisable Classical influences.
Three Pastels is a set of three pieces for piano solo composed in 1941 by John Ireland.
Rosa 'A Shropshire Lad' is a peach blend shrub rose, bred by British rose breeder, David C. H. Austin before 1991. It was introduced into the United Kingdom by David Austin Roses Limited (UK) in 1996. The rose was named in honor of the collection of poems, 'A Shropshire Lad' by A.E. Housman on the 100th anniversary of its publication.
