Housman, Alfred Edward (1859-1936)
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Born in Fockbury, England, and educated at Oxford University, Alfred Edward Housman was a rather miserable chap with a pessimistic outlook on life. He had five books published, only two of which were published during his lifetime: A Shropshire Lad (1896), Last Poems (1922), More Poems (1936), Collected Poems (1939), and Manuscript Poems (1955). Did I mention he was a poet? His poetry ranged from “melancholy lyrics about human suffering,” to poems that “express the fleeting quality of love and beauty.” Apart from poetry, Housman spent much of his time teaching Latin at London and Cambridge universities, as well as translating works of the Roman authors Juvenal, Lucan, and Manilius. He also wrote Infant Innocence, a cute little poem about a child who gets eaten by a bear.
