elements, the precise tone and color of language employed
to articulate impulse and mood, and the reproduction of
objective substances for a clear visualization of character
and scene, all tend by a sure and unfaltering composition,
to present a lyric art unique in English poetry of the last
twenty-five years.

I dare say I have scarcely touched upon the secret of
Mr. Housman's book. For some it may radiate from the
Shropshire life he so finely etches; for others, in the vivid
artistic simplicity and unity of values, through which
Shropshire lads and landscapes are presented. It must be,
however, in the miraculous fusing of the two. Whatever that
secret is, the charm of it never fails after all these years to
keep the poems preserved with a freshness and vitality,
which are the qualities of enduring genius.


WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE




A SHROPSHIRE LAD



I

1887