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Question:

Review or explication on the poem "Terence, this is stupid stuff by A.E. Housman?

this is my first paper on a poem, im finding it hard or don't really understand how to write a explicaton of this poem HELP HELP.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

basically, Housman is writing about how being drunk, makes him a better writer.

however, being drunk does not make Terence a better writer.
in the first stanza, he says that his friends' poetry gives him a stomach ache. then follows a quote of his pals poem...about the dead cow.

second stanza is all about beer. the making of beer, where to buy beer. why beer is so wonderful.
hop-yards....fields where hops are grown {hops are used to make beer}

Burton built on Trent, is a market city built on the Trent river. probably full of ale houses.

"Livelier liquor than the Muse", Beer is better at making him think of things to write than his poetic muse

"And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God??s ways to man. " Milton wrote Paradise Lost, an epic poem about God, Adam and Eve...Housman is saying that beer will give you a more clear understanding of the relationship between god and man, more than the Great Poet himself {milton}.

The rest of the second poem, he writes about drinking Ludlow beer, feeling that the world looks better at the bottom of his drinking mug, passes out in a ditch to wake up in the morning depressed with having to face the real world Not drunk.

Third stanza, he is being depressing.

"I??d face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good. "
If he has to face the world sober, than he will be prepared for he ill of the world, the bad...and not the good, because there is more {ill} bad things than good things.

even his poetry does not sell as well as beer, meaning Beer is better than Housman's poetry
"??Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale
Is not so brisk a brew as ale: "

Fouth stanza is a metaphor. In this metaphor he is trying to justify his continual drinking {beer as poision} is beneficial to his longevity.
this metaphor is set in a little story about King Mithridates, who as a caution to his own safety, sampled All the Poision on earth, because he knew that all kings fall victim to poisioning at one time or another. And when the people at his table did eventually try to poision the king, the king was fine and they were not. the other people died from arsenic and strychnine poisioning.
the king dies old....therefore so will Housman.

hope this helped.