The Carpenter's Son
"Here the hangman stops his cart:
Now the best of friends must part.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live, lads, and I will die.
"Oh, at home had I but stayed
'Prenticed to my father's trade,
Had I stuck to plane and adze,
I had not been lost, my lads.
"Then I might have built perhaps
Gallows-trees for other chaps,
Never dangled on my own,
Had I left but ill alone.
"Now, you see, they hang me high,
And the people passing by
Stop to shake their fists and curse;
So 'tis come from ill to worse.
"Here hang I, and right and left
Two poor fellows hang for theft:
All the same's the luck we prove,
Though the midmost hangs for love.
"Comrades all, that stand and gaze,
Walk henceforth in other ways;
See my neck and save your own:
Comrades all, leave ill alone.
"Make some day a decent end,
Shrewder fellows than your friend.
Fare you well, for ill fare I:
Live lads, and I will die."
Commentary
This is from Houseman’s collection “A Shropshire Lad” - there are a lot of war poems which are, in their own quiet way, a great deal more satisfying to me than Rupert Brooke’s poems, especially because of their biting sarcasm, such as “From Clee to Heaven the Beacon Burns” -
>“Oh, God will save her, fear you not:
>Be you the men you’ve been,
>Get you the sons your fathers got,
>And God will save the Queen.”
This poem above is ironic, mocking - a carpenter’s son reflecting, as he is going to be hanged, how much better it would have been if he had stuck to making gallows trees instead of committing crimes that led to his being forced to sample his own product.
He is making a confession of his crimes and a request to his fellow human beings not to be led into a life of crime lest they suffer the same fate as he. Or is he? Is he dying for love of mankind like Jesus did on the cross, between two thieves suffering the same penalty for just and valid reasons?
srs
Martin adds
An added irony - nowhere in the poem does it say that the love he is dying for is love of mankind. Indeed, if the narrator had not compared his situation to Jesus’s, the phrase “hangs for love” would have a readily obvious interpretation.
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Mallika Chellappa · 27 May 2003
I too think this poem refers to none but Jesus, thinly disguised.
True, this carpenter’s son could be being punished for having the
temerity to love the squire’s daughter, but overall the picture of a punishment for no crime shines through, and, of course, “live, lads, and I will die” is nothing more than Jesus’ promise on which all of Christianity is based.
Mallika
John K. Taber · 27 May 2003
Perhaps, Martin. But “hangman” in a general sense is just executioner.
The details fit Jesus, a carpenter’s son, and executed amidst two thieves.
The condemned man does not leave “well enough alone” as the idiom requires, he refuses to leave “ill” alone, which has brought him to his pass.
His distinction compared to his condemned mates is that he alone hangs for “love.” The speaker is the “midmost.”
It seems to me the poem is about Jesus, translated into 19th cent. Shropshire terms.
The poem may indeed refer to a real hanging, but we are reminded by the poem that the condemned shares a fate with Jesus, which is in my opinion the point of the poem.
John K. Taber
Martin DeMello · 27 May 2003
I wavered over that, but the word ‘hangman’ leaned me away from it.
martin
Lynd Mike · 27 May 2003
I think you are missing the point - surely the Carpenter’s son is Jesus - the whole poem is about Jesus and is narrated by Jesus. best wishes,
Mike Lynd
Hicks.SL · 7 June 2004
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Housman homosexual? He obviously wasn’t hanging for “loving the squires daughter”. Also, why would he write a poem about Jesus, when he was an atheist? I’m just wondering.
Bruce Alan Wilson · 24 April 2005
Carpenter’s Son
Remember, Houseman was an atheist. The poem is, indeed, about Jesus’ death, but Houseman denies any cosmic or salvific significance to the event; he’s saying that this is another poor dumb bastard who got himself condemned to execution–nothing more and nothing less.
As a Christian, of course, I reject the message, as much as I may (as a student of literature) admire the artistry of the poem.