The poem
Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.
Many years ago, I had an uncle and aunt who farmed near to Fockbury in Worcestershire. On the estate was an old country house, bigger than a cottage, called "Housmans" and it was there that A.E. Housman lived as a child and young man. Aa I grew up I read the now unfashionable verses of A Shropshire Lad and learned that A.E.H. had never ever lived in that county, but from where he lived, the view of those Shropshire…
Read the whole commentMany years ago, I had an uncle and aunt who farmed near to Fockbury in Worcestershire. On the estate was an old country house, bigger than a cottage, called "Housmans" and it was there that A.E. Housman lived as a child and young man. Aa I grew up I read the now unfashionable verses of A Shropshire Lad and learned that A.E.H. had never ever lived in that county, but from where he lived, the view of those Shropshire Hills was visible. He had an obsession with untimely death and suicide, of young men going off to war and dying for their country. He rose, belatedly through academia to great heights and became Professor of Classics at Cambridge, an austere and remote man. But he espoused a love for Shropshire and the jealous pride of a native although he had no claim to it.
Blue Remembered Hills is a lament for lost youth and enormormously evocative, quoted very often.
This poem was used at the end of the film "Walkabout".
I thought it was an ideal choice.
i thought this poem was very interesting and unique ! i had to read this for school and i thought it relaxing but i was in just the right mood to read it and I'm happy that i did !
After seeing the film Walkabout this became my favourite poem signifying to me everything about lost childhood.
A.E.Houseman's "Into my heart an air that kills"
On Sunday 2nd May 2010 the poem was quoted by a leading tv detective in "Lewis", a popular detective drama, on British television.It is meaningful to me from the novel called "The Far Country" by Nevil Shute, who used a lot of A.E.Houseman quotes in his books.......