“Here the hangman stops his cart:
Now the best of friends must part.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live, lads, and I will die.
“Oh, at home had I but stayed
”˜Prenticed to my father’s trade,
Had I stuck to plane and adze,
I had not been lost, my lads.
“Then I might have built perhaps
Gallows-trees for other chaps,
Never dangled on my own,
Had I left but ill alone.
“Now, you see, they hang me high,
And the people passing by
Stop to shake their fists and curse;
So ’tis come from ill to worse.
“Here hang I, and right and left
Two poor fellows hang for theft:
All the same’s the luck we prove,
Though the midmost hangs for love.
“Comrades all, that stand and gaze,
Walk henceforth in other ways;
See my neck and save your own:
Comrades all, leave ill alone.
“Make some day a decent end,
Shrewder fellows than your friend.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live lads, and I will die.”
”“A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
Not so sure I like this one…
We venerate a cross, not a “gallows tree.”
Poetic imagery is well and good, but to call it an execution stake or anything but a cross is inappropriate.
I’d go beyond that to question the image of Christ that Housman offers us in his poem. The Christ of this poem is more like the Christ of Albert Schweitzer than the Christ of Scripture and of the Church– a tragic “hero” who thew himself into the cogs of the ages and failed… A Christ who realizes it was all for nothing in the end (even if for love). What does this crucified man have to say to his followers? Don’t follow me– look where my idealism has led me. Would that I could have done it differently.
That sums up my main problems with Housman’s Good Friday offering.