General Information

From the poem cycle A Shropshire Lad.

Instructors’ Teaching Experience

Students love this poem which makes an argument for abandoning studies in order to go out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather.  (For this very reason, it’s particularly fun, in a sadistic sort of way, to teach in the springtime.)  It’s nice to pair with other poems about things like drinking, sex, and mischief, topics students are usually surprised to find addressed in formal poetry.  It is also quoted in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, which makes for natural pairing.  [Lindsey Row-Heyveld, lindsey-row-heyvald@uiowa.edu]