The English poet and classical scholar Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) is known for the simplicity of his form and language, the narrow range of his subject matter, and the attitude of traditional stoicism which his poems present.

The eldest of seven children, A. E. Housman was born in Fockbury, Worcestershire. He entered St. John's College, Oxford, in 1877, where, after a distinguished start, and despite apparent brilliance as a classical scholar, he failed to gain his honors degree. This failure was, apparently, such a disgrace for Housman as to cause his withdrawal both from academic life and from his family to take up a post in the civil service in London. It was but one of a series of disappointments which strongly affected an acutely sensitive nature. The death of his mother when he was 12 years old disturbed him so profoundly, according to his sister, that death thereafter became...