A Shropshire Lad Critical Essay | Critical Essay by J. B. Priestley

Critical Essay by J. B. Priestley

SOURCE: Priestley, J. B. “The Poetry of A. E. Housman.” London Mercury 7, no. 38 (December 1922): 171-84.

In the following essay, Priestley suggests some reasons why critics have tended to ignore Housman's poetry in discussions of serious literature. He praises both A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems for their unity of mood.

Mr. A. E. Housman is easily our most surprising poet. His first surprise was A Shropshire Lad itself, one of the most astonishing volumes in a very astonishing literature. It came to us practically a full-grown masterpiece, and the production of what used to be regarded as a lyric poet's maturity. He gave us no interesting juvenilia to examine; we have never seen the beginnings, when he was working under half-a-dozen conflicting influences, when his own manner was only half developed. His next surprise was to maintain an almost unbroken silence for over a quarter of a...
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