One of the most admired poets of his day, A.E. Housman wrote poems that conjure a potent and idyllic rural world imbued with a poignant sense of loss. Expressed in simple rhythms, they show a fine ear for the subtleties of meter and alliteration, and they touch on subjects ranging from religious doubt and doomed love to patriotic celebration of the soldier and intense nostalgia for the countryside. This volume brings together the works Housman published in his lifetime, A Shropshire Lad (1896) and Last Poems (1922), along with many posthumous selections and three translations of extracts from Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes that display his mastery of classical literature.

This edition has been revised by Archie Burnett and includes updated notes on the text and indexes of first lines and titles. It is introduced by Nick Laird and includes an afterword by John Sparrow. 

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1.700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout historyand across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.