Talk:A. E. Housman

message: An anon. contributor included the poem "To an Athlete Dying Young", and I just fixed the misformatting due to lack of Wiki experience. However, it seems a good example of the themes in Housman's poetry so I kept it. (Copyright OK I suppose?) — Dizzley (Peter H) 06:53, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Included poetry 

message: the old wikiquote link worked, but the new one done through a template does not link to the correct article. i am reverting to the older version until this kink can be worked out. the new version is more aesthetically pleasing, but not functional.--Alhutch 09:05, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: problem solved. had to create a redirect in wikiquote from Alfred Edward Housman to A. E. Housman. the wikiquote template is back in the article and all set now.--Alhutch 09:17, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  wikiquote 

message: He seems to be generally known as A.E. Housman.  My Penguin copy of his collected works refers to him nowhere by his full name (indeed I was unaware what it was).   I would perhaps rename the article and put the full name as redirect.  A comparable is A.A. Milne.  RandomProcess 13:56, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I've revisited this issue below, @ Full name in title.  --  Jack of Oz  ... speak! ...  04:48, 29 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Should article be titled "A.E. Housman"? 

message: 20 April 2006 is the 70th annivesary of his death, so presumably his works become public domain on 1 Jan 2007? RandomProcess 11:36, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  70 years since he died 

message: The article seems to assume common knowledge in the fact of homosexuality.  However, it does not explain how or why this is known about A.E. Housman.  A line or two explaining this would be a welcome addition.
:Do we need citations for common knowledge? If so, use Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041206/A-E-Housman  --207.81.158.123 21:06, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: To very belately answer the question: Yes, we do need citations.  One is not born knowing that Housman was homosexual; one must have read it somewhere, or been told by someone who read it somewhere, or ....  We cannot pander in mere rumours, but if something has been reported in a reputable publication, we can mention it.  --  Jack of Oz  ... speak! ...  21:47, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  homosexual reference? 

message: I know of a second parody of Housman, one which has been quoted in several books of quotations, but cannot recall the author. As it follows both Housman's pre-occupations (or the popular belief of them) and style I feel it might be included; all is needed is the author. The piece (as memory serves) goes;
:What? Still alive at twenty two?
:A fine, upstanding chap like you?
:Why, if your throat is hard to slit,
:Then slit your girls, and hang for it!
I should comment that AE is my favourite poet.LessHeard vanU 20:50, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's very amusing, but even funnier that your mentor didn't approve... Eebahgum (talk) 12:37, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Parody of Housman 

message: What on earth is Housman on about here:
 Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
 And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
 And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
 Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
  
 'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
 In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;
 Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair
 For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.
  
 Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid
 To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
 But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,
 And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.
  
 Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet
 And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
 And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
 He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.
Is there something I should know about people sent to jail for their hair colour, or is this a veiled reference to gay men being sent to prison (Oscar Wilde etc.)
--Slashme 06:45, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It is the latter.  Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe quoted from this poem in the House of Lords in 2005 in a legal case involving a same-sex couple , although they happened to be women in this case.  See paragraph 92. --Heron 18:40, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Isn't it specifically about Wilde, who also had red hair, and his persecution for his sexuality?LessHeard vanU 21:36, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: That young sinner

message: I'm new to this and don't know how to format for Wikipedia, but wanted to add that in the 1985 movie "Out of Africa", Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen (Meryl Streep) read the poem To an Athlete Dying Young over the grave of Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford).
Add to "Housman in television":
Sergeant Hathaway quotes the entirety of Book XL of "A Shropshire Lad" in the second episode ("The Dead of Winter") of Series 4 of Inspector Lewis: "Into my heart on air that kills."  It is clearly a lament, as he re-connects after 20 years with a young lady for whom he seemingly has always carried a torch--but who now is engaged to another man.Ehpk5147 (talk) 14:55, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Housman in film 

message: The Meryl Streep character also makes a toast to rose-lipped maidens & lightfoot lads, so there are at least two AE Housman references in the movie. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.241.229.183 (talk) 03:52, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Out of Africa 

message: But which King Edward's School? There are several in the West Midlands alone. This needs disambiguating. 86.132.137.197 02:19, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[King Edward's School]] 

message: Material about his membership of Order of Chaeronea was an error. A.E. Housman was here confused with his gay brother.—Preceding unsigned comment added by JamieON (talk • contribs) 
:Where is this Order mentioned in the text? Also, A.E. was (very likely) gay so why his brother and not him? LessHeard vanU 06:53, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: JamieON removed the comment about it.  It was unsourced regardless.  Seing as it is now up for contention, it should not be replaced unless a source can be found.  The Jade Knight 10:38, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, there are currently no sources referenced which claim that Housman was gay.  The Jade Knight 10:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Order of Chaeronea 

message: I have transferred the 'synopsis' of A Shropshire Lad which I originally wrote for this article, from this article to the A Shropshire Lad article, where its suitability or otherwise may be discussed if necessary at the article discussion page there. Eebahgum (talk) 10:08, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: ...(sound of advancing footsteps) "Oh, alright...!" ...(sound of receding footsteps) LessHeard vanU (talk) 20:54, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Synopsis 

message: I took the link to Georgian era out, as the link pointed to the era of the first four Georges who were before Victoria.  Really the sentence needs to be reworded, since 'Georgian' refers to Georges I to IV.  I don't know what the correct adjective is for the time of George V.
--Publunch (talk) 19:57, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The link would be better made to Georgian Poetry, as that term refers to those published during the reigns of George V and VI who are romantic, sentimental or hedonistic but not modernist. They are still referred to as "Georgian Poets." NRPanikker (talk) 05:05, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  'Georgian' 

message: I would like to thank Eclectiology for removing the POV tag. If anyone has an objection to this, please list it here before reverting. Thanks Mrathel (talk) 13:05, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  removal of POV tag 

message: This article needs an infobox. P Cezanne (talk) 18:33, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Please feel free to edit the infobox I added and the format of the article; neither Housman nor layouts are my forte. Mrathel (talk) 19:10, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Infobox

message: I fear the section on Housman in Other Art Forms is growing to be too cumbersome and is attracting connective trivia. Perhaps if we were to put this into a text form it would discourage the addition of references that do not specifically talk about the article's subject. Mrathel (talk) 05:28, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other art Forms 

message: Why is A. E. Housman referred to by his full name in the title?  He's virtually never known as that. --  Jack of Oz  ... speak! ...  04:46, 29 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Full name in title

message: As it stood:
:Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems' wistful evocation of doomed youth in the English countryside...
But it isn't the "wistful evocation" that is "lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form." MagistraMundi (talk) 10:10, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: First paragraph

message: According to this webpage (see references at the bottom of the page) around 1929 poet A.E. Housman wrote a tribute poem to RLS inspired by his gravestone Requiem. While I do not have access to the texts referenced it seems very likely that the variance in the lines from the two poems could be the source of the many misquotes. In either case I think it would be prudent to include this information in both WP articles since readers often want to know the source of a famous quotation and in this case the answer is two-fold. If anyone has access to the referenced book and letters please verify this information. Koala Tea Of Mercy (KTOM's Articulations & Invigilations) 18:52, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  A.E. Housman's tribute to RLS 

message: ...many early 20th-century English composers (beginning with Arthur Somervell)...
Is it necessary to mention Arthur Somervell in the lede? It's jarring, because it reads as tho' a fan of Arthur Somervell has decided to get his name into prominence. But he isn't important in A.E. Housman's story and isn't particularly famous as an English composer. I don't think he should be mentioned so early. I'll remove the ref if there are no objections. MagistraMundi (talk) 09:49, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Shoehorned reference?

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on A. E. Housman. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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*Replaced archive link https://web.archive.org/web/http://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25336-2646321,00.html with https://web.archive.org/web/20091012094540/http://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25336-2646321,00.html on http://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25336-2646321,00.html
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Pupils should be distinguished from students who merely attended his lectures. Pupils go to tutorials and have their work scrutinised by their tutor. I don't know whether he had pupils at London, but would guess not, since I have never heard of anyone laying claim to have been one. As a professor he would not have had pupils at Cambridge, so the reference to Enoch Powell having been one is incorrect, though Powell attended his lectures and put great value on them. Women at Cambridge had been taking the Classical Tripos since the 1870s, and would have attended his lectures. Indeed, there is a famous story about how he ridiculed a woman at one of his lectures, which I have heard first-hand from someone who was there. I propose to make the slight alterations required. Seadowns (talk) 22:43, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: So far as I know Cambridge students are referred to as students, not as pupils (though in the Latin statutes they may be described as in statu pupillari). However, there's an article in the Housman Soc. newsletter which asserts that Powell and Housman did not meet personally. But later they did correspond. Sweetpool50 (talk) 10:56, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pupils? 

message: It would be useful to have some detail about his work in the Patent Office. After all, many people might think he would have been of more use to the world in general there than in his later academic life. Seadowns (talk) 20:58, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: I've had a look at A. S. F. Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch and gain the impression that the detail of his official duties are not such as to warrant comment. AEH seems to have put far more energy into the private scholarship for which his work left him enough time. No more than a single sentence would be justified, surely? Sweetpool50 (talk) 17:47, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I think you are right. I shouldn't have mentioned this. Seadowns (talk) 22:45, 26 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Work in Patent Office 

message: Since the end of March  has been making unsourced changes to what was, admittedly, an insufficient Lead section and has refused to discuss the matter on his Talk page. Now it is rewritten according to editorial guidelines he has persisted in reverting changes without providing an edit summary. IMO this verges on WP:EDITWARRING. Contentious issues should be discussed here first. Sweetpool50 (talk) 07:03, 6 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lead section 

message: Hello everyone just finished uploading Housman's signature to wikimedia commons here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Signature_of_A._E._Housman.svg
As far as I know signatures cannot be copyrighted and as the book was published in 1896 with his signature in it, I uploaded it. Let me know if there are any issues. 
I would add it to his page but I am unfamiliar with the formatting rules on wikipedia past simple edits. 
Thank you Intomyheartanairthatkills (talk) 20:48, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: . In this case, you would add |signature = Signature_of_A._E._Housman.svg to the infobox at the top of the article. See Help:Files for more general instructions on adding files. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 01:53, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I agree. Placing the signature at the foot of the infobox is the most sensitive place to put it. I was amused to find it was regular practice to have such signatures in early Victorian encyclopaedias, so there are historical precedents! Sweetpool50 (talk) 12:43, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added signature to Wikimedia Commons 

message: Giải thích A.E Housman là ai 171.252.155.255 (talk) 13:40, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Who is A.E.Housman 

message: I have made a few small changes to the English translation of the Gow's Latin memorial inscription in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. No citation was provided for the translation used in the article, but it was obviously copied and pasted from the web site of Trinity chapel, which reproduces (without acknowledgment) the translation of James Clackson, Inscriptions from the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1990). Clackson's translation is generally quite good, but inaccurate in a few details. I have made the following changes:
* The word cavillatio in Latin denotes mockery, jeering, or railing. Although among friends light-hearted mockery can be treated as a joke, there is nothing in the word that necessarily implies wittiness, and Housman's blistering criticism of the incompetence of other scholars was not light-hearted. I have therefore translated tam acri cavillatione as "with such sharp mockery." (Clackson's translation treats these as two adverbs, but acri is an adjective modifying cavillatione.)
* The phrase horum studiorum paene reformator means "a virtual second founder of these studies", not "of textual studies".
* The phrase tenui carminum fasciculo does not mean "slim books of verse": fasciculo, the word here translated as books, is singular, not plural; and carminum, the word here translated as verse, is plural, not singular. The word fasciculus literally denotes not a book but a small bundle or sheaf (it's the diminutive form of fascis, a term for a bundle of sticks). The image that Gow was invoking was not a book but a thin sheaf of papers tied with a string. I have translated the phrase as "a slender sheaf of verses." 
* The phrase in Helicone nostro means "on our Helicon," not "on the British Helicon." (Yes, "our" here by implication must mean the Helicon of British poets, but that's not what the Latin text says.) 
* The next-to-last sentence as a whole says, literally, "The same man, as a poet, claimed a secure seat for himself on our Helicon by means of a slender sheaf of poems". The subject of the verb vindicavit is poeta, not fasciculo carminum; in the Latin text, it is the poet, not his poetry, who claimed the seat. Clackson's translation alters the syntax to make the poetry the subject of the verb, but in doing so subtly changes the sense. I have rearranged it to restore the literal meaning of the Latin.
I expect these corrections will prompt objections and cries of OR, but the only entirely reliable source here is the Latin text of Gow's tribute, and all I have done is make the actual meaning of the Latin text accessible to readers who cannot read the Latin for themselves. (As a fringe benefit, my changes also eliminate the copyvio caused by the verbatim copying of Clackson's translation without acknowledgment.) Crawdad Blues (talk) 15:22, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  English translation of Gow's Latin inscription in Trinity chapel