The Collected Poems of A.E. Housman

The conditions, and times of these poems were written around the 1930's.  Conditions of working, and living were very different than present times.  On page eleven the description of the wooded lands implies it is Easter time of the year. The way the  author describes the cherry trees that are in bloom is beautiful.
The next poem we read about is titled, "The Recruit" it deals with how the young man prepares to leave his home behind.  It is hard to start out in a new surrounding indeed, it is a big adjustment.The following poem, "Reveille" talks about the young man, who kills a bird with a yellow bill. The same poem indicates the road that can lead home, and the other one you can follow to work.
Ludlow is an actual  village in England that I found in the Atlas.  Next, we are presented to the yeoman, or Navy officer in modern terms, who must say goodbye to his love.
We find that the train tracks are close to Ludlow as indicated in the writing.
The poem mentions the young men are in the woods collecting daffodils, and coming home at noon.  The young ladies of Ludlow repair palms found on the edge of the pond, or hedge.
On page thirty three, it is mentioned that the young man was very brave.  He also was a champion runner, and I was carried on the village people's shoulders, back to Ludlow with a laurel on my head. On Bredon Hill, you can hear Church bells very clearly on Sundays, for people who wanted to attend Church. It seems the women of the households got up early, and went to Church alone.
On the streets the sounds of soldiers could be heard on the road as they passed.  Amazing, was that only one red coat soldier bothered to look at the females watching them.
Young men come to Ludlow for girlfriend companionship. Sometimes the young soldiers will die young, and never get old.
 
Page 179 States," I with the ice  in my palms, shall sleep as sound. Frost in the founts that used to leap, and perished nations how sound sleep." These lines of the poem are meaningful to me, because it warns us that winter is coming.

Remember, any laundry was sent out to a laundress in that time as we see on page 188. You must pay for this service, and it was pricey. There were no washing machines, or dryer's.

Soldier's handle life weather it is the past, or the present in many dangerous situations. On page 198 we read about a killing between two men that did not work out the way it was planned.

The conditions of these written poems, which was written  in the 1930's  brings to mind a subject the author implies throughout his writings as follows: human events that lead to all our deaths in different ways.  We have a page in the poem that describes a type of death back then on page thirty-nine.  These poems  are  worth reading, because in our modern times we have a lot of different ways to enhance our tasks .  It was a lot of  manual labor that took a lot of hardships, and conditions as stated in the poetry in the past.  This poetry book was a good read. LRD 10/15/12