“I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.” — A.E.Housman | V2Melody

“I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.”

Suggesting that poetry may be recognised instinctively without being definable · Lecture, The Name and Nature of Poetry, 1933

About A.E.Housman

A.E.Housman

26 March 1859–30 April 1936

Alfred Edward Housman was born on 26 March 1859 at Valley House, Fockbury, a small hamlet near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, England, and died in Cambridge on 30 April 1936. He became, by way of an unusually divided life, both one of the most recognizable lyric poets in English and one of the most formidable classical…

More by A.E.Housman

Poems by A.E.Housman

More remarks by A.E.Housman

“The pursuit of truth in some directions is even injurious to happiness, because it compels us to take leave of delusions which were pleasant while they lasted.”

Acknowledging the emotional price that uncomfortable truths can exact · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892

“Every problem which presents itself to the textual critic must be regarded as possibly unique.”

Emphasising judgement and attention to individual circumstances · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921

“A textual critic engaged upon his business is not at all like Newton investigating the motions of the planets: he is much more like a dog hunting for fleas.”

A comic metaphor for the practical and opportunistic nature of textual criticism · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921