Housman’s Poem is steeped in religious imagery. Most notably, speaking in terms of heaven and assuming the “young man” of the poem that he will enter heaven despite some misgivings he seems to be having about his immortal soul. It is heavily implied that this this the younger man’s fear of how being attracted to men will affect his transfer to heaven/the immortal plain. We can see this in the very first line, “O youth whose heart is right”(1). We can also assume that this Sage is a sage because he too has struggled with reconciling his attractions and his religious upbringing.
The speaker, The Sage, is assuring the young man that so long as he a kind and good in life he does not need to worry about the afterlife,”Endure, be strong and strive;/But think not, O my son,//To save thy soul alive./Wilt thou be true and just/And clean and kind and brave?” He tells the young man that he will not be rejected for his love and that he will be welcomed into heaven on merit and should not worry.
Contextually, Housman was a gay man with documented feelings for his college roommate. He may have been moved to create this based on his own feelings and the desire for an older teacher to have guided him through difficult times reconciling his sexuality. Especially in terms of religion and being soothed in his possible anxieties surrounding that. I was very surprised to see such an outright poem about Housman and being gay in a poem at his time. It makes me curious to see how far poets could go with these themes before really putting themselves at risk.
Your analysis is really well thought out and detailed, despite the difficult language of the poem! I find it both interesting and fitting to the time period that despite being gay, Housman is still concerned about getting into Heaven, and is extremely religious. While many people today assume that anyone who is gay is also an atheist, this is not always the case, and it was much less so during the Victorian Era. I am curious about the lines, “High heart, thou shalt but sleep / The sleep denied to none” (20). Of course this is referring to death, but I’m not fully understanding the meaning. Perhaps it is just more reassurance that he will get to Heaven; it just seems weirdly written to me.