Poetry Wednesday; The Colour of his Hair

‘The Colour of His Hair’ by A. E. Housman.

This week I have to admit my choice of poem was influenced by another blog I happened to come across, read it here.


http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2009/09/featured-poem-the-colour-of-his-hair-by-a-e-housman/

The Colour of His Hair’ by A. E. Housman.

This was written with Oscar Wild in mind during Wilds trial and subsequent conviction for ‘gross indecency’. The poem was not published at the time because, no doubt, it too would have been condemned as gross indecency. The poem was finally published after the death of both Wilde and Houseman.

The Poem;
The Colour of His Hair
by A E Housman

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after, that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they’re taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

‘Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
In the good old time ’twas hanging for the colour that it is;
Though hanging isn’t bad enough and flaying would be fair
For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

Oh a deal of pains he’s taken and a pretty price he’s paid
To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
But they’ve pulled the beggar’s hat off for the world to see and stare,
And they’re haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.

Now ’tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet,
And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.

A.    E. Housman (1859-1936):

Alfred Edward Housman had two careers and was excellent at both. He was and remains a popular poet but is also and one of this countries greatest scholars of latin. He was born in Worcestershire with the Clee Hills of Shropshire on the western horizon. He was the oldest of seven children one sister said he taught her all the astronomy she ever knew. He lived a rural life and loved to wander out into the fields and woodland. His mother died of cancer on his twelfth birthday and by his thirteenth he was a deist, a few years later became the atheist which remained all his life. He won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford at a time when many great literary figures were also there. Pater was there, Wilde was in his last term, Jowett was Master of Balliol, Ruskin was visiting professor of art and  Hopkins was a priest writing 'Duns Scotus's Oxford'. Oxford  was a staid and  sober place; apart from Wilde who adopted a bizarre dress sense consisting of flamboyant knickerbockers in a multitude of colours, mutton-chop whiskers, frock coats and stove pipe hats.

Read more of the life of Housman here.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/housman/bio.html

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Wilde was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, poet and critic, and a celebrity in late 19th century London. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. His father was a successful surgeon and his mother a writer and literary hostess. Wilde was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. While at Oxford, Wilde became involved in the aesthetic movement. After he graduated, he moved to London to pursue a literary career.

Read more of wilde here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilde_oscar.shtml
 

Artwork by

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
(1864-1901)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was born on November 24, 1864, in southern France. Son and heir of Comte Alphonse-Charles de Toulouse, he was the last in the line of an aristocratic family that dated back a thousand years. Today, the family estate houses the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec. As a child, Henri was weak and often sick. But by the time he was ten years old he had begun to draw and paint.
At age twelve Toulouse-Lautrec broke his left leg and at fourteen his right leg. The bones did not heal properly, and his legs ceased to grow. He reached maturity with a body trunk of normal size but with abnormally short legs. He was only 4 1/2 feet (1.5 meters) tall.
Deprived of the physical life that a normal body would have permitted, Toulouse-Lautrec lived completely for his art. He dwelt in the Montmartre section of Paris, the center of the cabaret entertainment and bohemian life that he loved to depict in his work. Dance halls and nightclubs, racetracks, prostitutes - all these were memorialized on canvas or made into lithographs.

Read more of Lautrec here

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/T/toulouse-lautrec.html

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