Classic Love Poems
| 
Alfred Edward Housman, known as A. E. Housman (1859-1936), was an English scholar and poet. His true vocation was in classical studies, and he has been ranked as one of the greatest scholars of all time. Poetry was a secondary activity. While he was a student at Oxford, he realized his homosexual tendencies; but the object of his desire could not return the affection. Convinced that he would have to live without love, Housman became increasingly reclusive and turned to writing the lyrical poems that eventually made up A Shropshire Lad, his best-known work.
A Shropshire Lad
by A. E. Housman
First published in 1896, there are few volumes of poetry that have enjoyed the success of this enduring classic.
Byron Cottage, the stately five-bedroom Georgian home in Highgate, London where Housman wrote his collection of poems,
A Shropshire Lad
XVIII: Oh, When I Was in Love with You
Oh, when I was in love with you,
Then I was clean and brave,
And miles around the wonder grew
How well did I behave.
And now the fancy passes by,
And nothing will remain,
And miles around they’ll say that I
Am quite myself again.
Because I Liked You Better
Because I liked you better
Than suits a man to say,
It irked you, and I promised
To throw the thought away.
To put the world between us
We parted, stiff and dry;
“Good-bye”, said you, “forget me.”
“I will, no fear,” said I.
If here, where clover whitens
The dead man’s knoll, you pass,
And no tall flower to meet you
Starts in the trefoiled grass,
Halt by the headstone naming
The heart no longer stirred,
And say the lad that loved you
Was one that kept his word.
on “Houseman, A. E.”
