Professor of Latin and Greek, A. E. Housman is, arguably, more popularly know for his poetry. His most noted poetic work is A Shropshire Lad which includes the popular �To An Athelete Dying Young.� More ironically, given his self-avowed atheism, some of his �religious� poetry remain some of his most popularly collected works. His poem �The Carpenter�s Son� is a favorite Lenten poem.
The Carpenter’s Son
“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
