The laws of God, the laws of man.
He may keep that will and can;
Now I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbour to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong,
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn or Mercury
Keep we must, if keep we can
These foreign laws of God and man.
by Alfred Edward Housman
___________________________________________________
Near the end of his life, the austere A.E. Housman started to tackle in his poetry the one subject he had long avoided – his homosexuality. Published together with several others of similar concern in Last Poems, this particular poem illuminates Housman’s irreconcilable indignity towards civil and ecclesiastical legislations that forced him to suppress his innate inclinations.
Much as it is about his homosexuality, this poem encompasses all forms of alienation one may experience; it serves well as a mantra for those who feel beleaguered by the mainstream society, which I believe to be everyone from time to time. Removed of any ornate allusions or mind-boggling conceits, the poem’s clean and lucid language keeps its case conspicuous. Its raw and deeply emotional use of words displays the poet’s acute anger in full force, much to the contrast of the ironically comfortable iambic tetrameter the lines are set in.
Perhaps the most quotable line, “I, a stranger and afraid / In a world I never made” best epitomizes the pariah-mentality held by many. An escapist cowardice at worst, it reminds us that everyone is in a way or another a lonely sojourner of society. In a world of victims, why make life difficult for others and yourself?
Yet far from being deluded and contrary to stereotype, Housman does not wallow in self-pity; his life of strict principalities is reflected in the conclusion. Admitting that one cannot be the omnipotent despot Saturn was or flee this world upon the swift wings of Mercury, his last couplet imbues in his “foreign laws” a strength and commitment that springs from the tenacity of will and belief.
Anon.
He may keep that will and can;
Now I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbour to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong,
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn or Mercury
Keep we must, if keep we can
These foreign laws of God and man.
by Alfred Edward Housman
___________________________________________________
Near the end of his life, the austere A.E. Housman started to tackle in his poetry the one subject he had long avoided – his homosexuality. Published together with several others of similar concern in Last Poems, this particular poem illuminates Housman’s irreconcilable indignity towards civil and ecclesiastical legislations that forced him to suppress his innate inclinations.
Much as it is about his homosexuality, this poem encompasses all forms of alienation one may experience; it serves well as a mantra for those who feel beleaguered by the mainstream society, which I believe to be everyone from time to time. Removed of any ornate allusions or mind-boggling conceits, the poem’s clean and lucid language keeps its case conspicuous. Its raw and deeply emotional use of words displays the poet’s acute anger in full force, much to the contrast of the ironically comfortable iambic tetrameter the lines are set in.
Perhaps the most quotable line, “I, a stranger and afraid / In a world I never made” best epitomizes the pariah-mentality held by many. An escapist cowardice at worst, it reminds us that everyone is in a way or another a lonely sojourner of society. In a world of victims, why make life difficult for others and yourself?
Yet far from being deluded and contrary to stereotype, Housman does not wallow in self-pity; his life of strict principalities is reflected in the conclusion. Admitting that one cannot be the omnipotent despot Saturn was or flee this world upon the swift wings of Mercury, his last couplet imbues in his “foreign laws” a strength and commitment that springs from the tenacity of will and belief.
Anon.
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