A Shropshire Lad Housman A. E. (2017)

A collectible Penguin Classics series presents ten favourite poets in stunning clothbound editions, each featuring the poets most famous book of verse as originally published. Designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and beautifully set, these slim A-format volumes make elegant gifts for poetry lovers. A Shropshire Lad was first published in 1896 at A. E. Housmans own expense. The collection of lyrical poems became hugely successful after the Second Boer War and the First World War, when its themes of homesickness and patriotic celebration of the soldiers life resonated with English readers. This volume contains Housmans greatest works and demonstrates the lyrical precision and emotional depth of his writing. It includes To an Athlete Dying Young, an elegy for a life lost in its prime, and When I was One-and-Twenty, a love poem about the ignorance of youth.