Terence, this is stupid stuff Analysis

Housman may get into some pretty big ideas here, but he keeps the form of the poem pretty simple and regular. You definitely wouldn't call this an experimental poem. The poem's rhythm makes a great...

Well, actually we have two speakers in this poem, although they definitely don't get equal time on the mic. The first speaker is the guy who's got a beef with his poet friend Terence. He's sick of...

We don't get a lot of specific details about where this poem takes place, but we do get a really strong feeling for the atmosphere. From the little bit of detail we do get, we know this is a place...

There's nothing too fancy about this poem's sound. We hear the stiff, steady beat of a drum in its lines, and the regular sound of marching feet. Even when Housman is talking about a guy falling do...

Actually, when this poem was first published, it didn't even have a title—just a number. It was called LXII, which let readers know that it was number 62 in Housman's book of poems A Shropshire L...

Housman focused his early poems on simple subjects: trees and nature and life and death in the English countryside—a lot of death actually. Housman is famous for tackling dark subjects. Many of h...

There are a few tricky bits in here (where's Ludlow? who's Mithridates?), but once you've got the scoop on those, this should be an easy climb.

The great love of Housman's life was his college roommate, Moses Jackson, who did not return his affection. Sad. (Source.)Although he's famous as a poet, Housman's day job was being a college profe...

There's nothing even faintly resembling sex in this poem. Now, if we were giving this poem a beer rating, things would look pretty different. Folks seem to drink a lot in Housman's world.

The Muse (20): The Muses were the ancient Greek goddesses of science and art. More importantly for this poem, they were believed to inspire the creation of poetry. Bringing up the Muses (or, in thi...