Assignment 2

A. E Housman: “When I Was One-and-Twenty” (p. 136)

The major theme of Housman’s 104 short lyrics is the brevity and tragedy of life and the inevitability of death. Spring and youth are beautiful, but they pass quickly. We must expect neither happiness nor justice during the brief span allotted us; life is basically cruel and filled with injustice. But at least we know that our misfortunes are the common lot of humanity. We have no one but ourselves to depend on; our own strength must see us through our troubles. The endurance itself is important; the game must be played with the chin up even though the losing of it is assured. Meanwhile, there are the pleasures of the countryside, of love and drinking, of song and laughter.

We ask ourselves if “When I Was One-and-Twenty” is literal or ironic. That is, may we accept the speaker’s statement that in one year he has truly learned the lesson of the wise man, or is the speaker’s judgment, based on so little experience, finally ironic? Is there nothing left for him to learn about painful human relationships?