Metrical Analysis of an A.E. Housman Poem

To live and shame the land from which we sprung.

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;

But young men think it is, and we were young.

This is the entire poem, "Here Dead Lie We Because We Did Not Choose", by A.E. Housman. The Iambic flow is quite steady through the first two lines. It's true; one could scan the first line as: spondee followed by 4 feet of iambs. I fail to see the importance in stressing the first word, save for emphasizing the temporal immediate reaction evoked by the word "Here". I think the ambiguous spondee-iamb relationship in the first foot of the poem, only hinders what would otherwise be a natural iambic beginning. He seems to be trying to make a statement about the frailty of life, Earth's precarious balance, and perhaps the origin of man. All of this is secondary to his rhythm, however. The ostensible "meaning" in the first two lines is balanced by the nearly perfect meter. The word "shame" takes its beat properly within the second foot of the line; it: not being a metrical variation allows the reader to continue on, without being disturbed by the connotational weight of the word "shame"

The reader is left to pass over these lines without stopping at any point for variation, or stress. Then, Life, to be sure opens the third line. A stressed syllable, followed by an anapest, causes the reader to stop, and ponder on Life, and then there is a pause. It is quite a natural caesura, but it is also important because of its variation. If the meaning in the opening lines is to be passed over quickly, or read without distraction, then the use of the initial caesura in line three, is perfect.

After all, the speaker of the poem is there, in the present of the poem. So, if the speaker is one of the young men "deciding" not to live so he doesn't "shame the land", then why on line four does the speaker seem to suggest that the young men lived, and now he is reflecting on the past.

There is confusion in this poem, neither aided nor hindered by the meter. The only clear deviation from rhythm is in line three, and it seems a natural move, to me. The ambiguous iambs in the first few feet of line 4 seem arbitrary. I think this poem may have metrical issues, but its issues lie more deeply in the confusion created by whether or not the speaker and the other "young men" are alive, or dead.

The clearest example of meter aiding meaning, is in the third line. It's obvious that the word "Life", its stress and initial caesura, are eliciting a stronger response from the reader.