Carol Efrati
The Bard and the Bible
Descriptors: Housman, A. E.; poetry; Bible; Old Testament; New Testament; Adam; Adam and Eve; Lot's wife; Moses; Exodus from Egypt; Crucifixion; Easter
This essay reviews the use of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) as a source for creative writing, especially poetry, and provides a partial list of such derived material. It then proceeds to examine in some depth some of A. E. Housman's adaptations of individual phrases from the Bible, from which we proceed to the consideration of complete poems drawn from biblical sources. Housman was thoroughly versed in the Bible and used materials therefrom easily and originally. Five poems are carefully considered: one on Adam (with three other Adam poems touched on), one on Lot, one on the Exodus from Egypt, and two on the nature of Christ. What is clear from this examination is that Housman was accustomed to adapting such sources to his own purposes. His sympathies were engaged on the side of the transgressors who are punished by either divine or human authority, with whom he identified emotionally. As such, he could also identify with Christ, whom he presents as a human rather than a divine personage, just as he did with Adam, Lot, and Moses. This emotional bias towards the law-breaker can be traced to his own position as a homosexual in the aftermath of the Wilde trial.
