Alfred Edward Housman born on March 26, 1859 was an English poet and classical scholar best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad.
It was during Housman’s years in London that he completed A Shropshire Lad, a cycle of 63 poems. Housman's nostalgic depiction of brave English soldiers struck a chord with English readers and his poems became a lasting success. Later, World War I had a further increasing effect on their popularity.
Housman was surprised by the success of A Shropshire Lad because it, like all his poetry, is imbued with a deep pessimism and an obsession with all-pervasive death. Set in a half-imaginative pastoral Shropshire, "the land of lost content" (Housman actually wrote most of the poems before ever visiting the place), the poems explore themes of fleetingness of love and decay of youth in a spare, uncomplicated style. Housman himself acknowledged the influence of the songs of William Shakespeare, the Scottish Border Ballads and Heinrich Heine, but specifically denied any influence of Greek and Latin classics in his poetry.
His ashes are buried near St Laurence's Church, Ludlow, where commemorations are held annually on the last Saturday in April.
How to get to Shropshire 
Events to really SHOUT about
Shropshire Food & Drink
Shropshire News