Friday, October 11, 2024

I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded (by A.E. Housman).


This poem is found in Housman’s

A Shropshire Lad, it is number 43:


I hoed and trenched and weeded,
      And took the flowers to fair:

I brought them home unheeded;

     The hue was not the wear.


So up and down I sow them

     For lads like me to find,

When I shall lie below them,

     A dead man out of mind.


Some seed the birds devour,

    And some the season mars,

But here and there will flower

   The solitary stars,


And fields will yearly bear them

    As light-leaved spring comes on,

And luckless lads will wear them

   When I am dead and gone.


The poem with the stressed

syllables underlined:


I hoed and trenched and weeded,

     And took the flowers to fair:

I brought them home unheeded;

     The hue was not the wear.


So up and down I sow them

     For lads like me to find,

When I shall lie below them,

     A dead man out of mind.


Some seed the birds devour,

    And some the season mars,

But here and there will flower

    The solitary stars,


And fields will yearly bear them

     As light-leaved spring comes on,

And luckless lads will wear them

    When I am dead and gone.


This poem could be about investing

a lot of time in a love affair or

obsession with someone that goes

nowhere, and chosing not to be

ashamed of it but wear his folly

on his lapel so to speak (setting an

example for others in the same

situation). It even more likely about

the poet being rejected by publishers

(the poems being his flowers),

and deciding to publish himself,

so that the audience he knows is

out there might appreciate them

after his death, at least.


© C.A. MacLennan 2024