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This David Middleton poem makes a powerful companion read to Housman: https://spectrum.troy.edu/alr/v31/v31Middleton.pdf

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To forego the race, and perhaps save some face. Then again, to never run, is to dead before one is done.

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founding
Aug 26Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum

"Townsman of a stiller town" gives me chills. Genius that should be stolen from.

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I think Housman is aware of the shallowness of the thought, and the poem's irony hinges on that. The stiller town whose townsman the lad has become shows up the town which cheers and presumably now praises him for having died young.

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Aug 26Liked by Sally Thomas, Joseph Bottum
author

Housman said this was the parody he liked best.

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:-)

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