The Name and Nature of Poetry and Other Selected Prose

by A.E. Housman

Lovers of Housman's poetry and admirers of his scholarship have long been aware, from the Introductory Lecture of 1982 and The Name and Nature of Poetry , 1933, that he was also a master of a highly individualized prose style; and others besides classical students have relished the pungency of the famous preface to his edition of Manilius. Here, in addition to these, is a selection of Housman's writings, both scholarly and general, gathered from periodicals and other out-of-the-way sources, which decisively confirms his reputation as a prose stylist. The prefaces, the adversaria, and the reviews, in particular, give even the layman an idea of the precision and the penetration of exact scholarship. Housman's comments and judgments on other men illuminate his own withdrawn, austere, even crusty, yet gentle with the unassuming; ruthless in exposure of arrogance and pretension.

Genres: Poetry

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

A Shropshire Lad (1896) and Last Poems (1922) apparently published works of British poet and scholar Alfred Edward Housman, brother of Laurence Housman and Clemence Housman.

To his fellow noted classicists, his critical editing of Manilius earned him enduring fame.

The eldest of seven children and a gifted student, Housman won a scholarship to Oxford, where he performed well but for various reasons neglected philosophy and ancient history subjects that failed to pique his interest and consequently failed to gain a degree. Frustrated, he gained at job as a patent clerk but continued his research in the classical studies and published a variety of well-regarded papers. After a decade with such his reputation, he ably obtain a position at University College London in 1902. In 1911, he took the Kennedy professorship of Latin at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life.

As a scholar, Housman concentrated on Latin. He published a five-volume critical edition, the definitive text, of his work on " Astronomica " of Manilus from 1903 to 1930. Housman the poet produced lyrics that express a Romantic pessimism in a spare, simple style. In some of the asperity and directness in lyrics and also scholarship, Housman defended common sense with a sarcastic wit that helped to make him widely feared.

There are several biographies of Housman, and a The Housman Society http://www.housman-society.co.uk/