damian entwistleToday's poem:
A Shropshire Lad, IX
- by A. E. Housman
https://www.tumblr.com/ukdamo/807888475948990464/a-shropshire-lad-ix?source=share
Andi ChorleyEpitaph on an Army of Mercenaries
By A. E. Housman
These, in the days when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and the earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34uaUUx3Als&list=RD34uaUUx3Als&start_radio=1
#AEHousman #Poetry #PearlsBeforeSwine #TomRapp #Music #FolkRock
... Beautiful Lies You Could Live In was the sixth album credited to American psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine, and their fourth on Reprise Records. It was released in 1971.
The album has a more orthodox folk rock (or country rock) sound than earlier Pearls Before Swine records, with electric guitars and drums more prominent. It also contains several of Tom Rapp's most beautiful and evocative songs, such as "Snow Queen", "Island Lady", and "Freedom", together with a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Bird On A Wire". The album concludes with a brief setting of A. E. Housman's poem, "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries", sung by Elisabeth.
Reverting to the group's practice of using classic art images on their album covers, the sleeve design shows the 19th century Pre-Raphaelite painting "Ophelia" by John Everett Millais. - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7HKpFjXMtE&list=RDB7HKpFjXMtE&start_radio=1
#PearlsBeforeSwine #TomRapp #FolkRock #JohnEverettMillais #LeonardCohen #Music #AEHousman
WIST Quotations Has Moved!A quotation from A. E. Housman
When I was one-and-twentyI heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies,
But keep your fancy free.”
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
“The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
‘Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.”
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English scholar and poet [Alfred Edward Housman]
A Shropshire Lad, No. 13 (1896)
More info about this quote: wist.info/housman-a-e/79621/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #aehousman #commitment #passion #regrets #relationship #reserve #romance #youth #giveaway
A quotation from A. E. Housman
The stars have not dealt me the worst they could do:My pleasures are plenty, my troubles are two.
But oh, my two troubles they reave me of rest,
The brains in my head and the heart in my breast.
A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English scholar and poet [Alfred Edward Housman]
“Additional Poems,” No. 17 (pub. 1937)
More info about this quote: wist.info/housman-a-e/78892/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #aehousman #brain #destiny #emotions #fate #heart #pleasure #problem #trouble #mind #intellect
Guillotine Jones, FlâneurGrowing Older, A Short Story in X Paragraphs
Back when we studied poetry in school, I remember reading a poem that had a great impact on me. I now can't remember the author's name, or the poem's title, or any of the lines from the poem. But I do remember that it was about a Shropshire lad.
(You're such a lovely audience here on the Fediverse. Is there anyone here from Shropshire tonight?)
Many years later, I encountered a very amusing cartoon by an artist whose name I can no longer remember. Its caption was, "That OTHER Shropshire lad." I can't remember what happened in the cartoon, but it was not one of those laught-out-loud cartoons. It was one of those sideward wink cartoons that implied, "We're all sophisticates here who appreciate an ironic cartoon, and we're all in on this joke about multiple Shropshire lads -- or at least more than one Shropshire lad."
Quite a few years later, in one of the last jobs for which I was getting paid, I worked with a very nice co-worker whose family name was actually Shropshire.
He was an extremely friendly, interesting, talented, and pleasant chap with an offbeat sense of humor.
(He was the first and last person I'd ever met named Shropshire. Quite literally a Shropshire lad. In fact it suddenly occurs to me -- as I'm telling you this -- that he was ANOTHER other Shropshire lad.)
He was very tall, as I remember, and could dominate the conversation in any group by dint of his size.
I guess this just goes to show that life can be very strange. You read a poem about a Shropshire lad, later you see a cartoon about another Shropshire lad, and even later than that you become acquainted with a real-life Shropshire lad. (Even though he wasn't from Shropshire.)
I suppose that those of you who are from Shropshire won't find this chain of events about lads from Shropshire so strange -- there always being multiple lads who are from there at any given time. Yet here we are now on the Fediverse, and I think it would be cheating to look up the original poem to give you the author's name and cite some lines, and unfair to research the cartoon and attach it here for you.
It felt truer to me to just to tell you the story as it came to me. And that's what I did.
#Poetry #Cartoons #Aging #Shropshire #AEHousman #Literature #Comedy #ShortStories #Revery #StreamOfConsciousness #MicroFiction
asquithShall we have a #poem for #autumn ? https://kalliope.org/en/text/housman2002020319 #november #aehousman
A.E. Housman
Kalliope er en database indeholdende ældre dansk lyrik samt biografiske oplysninger om danske digtere. Målet er intet mindre end at samle hele den ældre danske lyrik, men indtil videre indeholder Kalliope et forhåbentligt repræsentativt, og stadigt voksende, udvalg af den danske digtning.
Today's poem
“Soldier from the wars returning”
- by A. E. Housman
https://www.tumblr.com/ukdamo/763757557180465152/soldier-from-the-wars-returning?source=share
#AEHousman #war #poetry #return #death #ease #rest #transience #WWI
tinydoctor@claytoncubitt "Mithridates, he died old."
https://www.housman-society.co.uk/terence-this-is-stupid-stuff/
Julie Howlin"The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in."
10 quotes from AE Housman:
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2024/03/26-march-alfred-edward-housman-quotes.html
