Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad

The song cycle is made up of a six poem setting taken from A. E. Housman's 1896 poem collection, 'A Shropshire Lad'.

1. Loveliest of Trees

2. When I Was One-and-Twenty

3. Look Not In My eyes

4. Think No More, Lad

5. The Lads in Their Hundreds

6. Is My Team Ploughing?

'Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad', was composed for bass baritone and piano and was written by 
George Butterworth in 1911.

The second song cycle, 'Bredon Hill and Other Songs', also a setting of five poems from 'A Shropshire Lad' was composed by George Butterworth in 1912.

You may purchase a recording of the songs from Presto Music

The poet Alfred Edward Housman was born in Worcestershire, England on March 26, 1859. He was the oldest of seven children.

A year after his birth, Housman's family moved to Bromsgrove, where he grew up and had his early education.

In 1877, he attended St. John's College, Oxford where he read Greats. His collection of poems 'A Shropshire Lad' was published in May 1896 and they have been in print continuously since that time.

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George Sainton Kaye Butterworth (12 July 1885 - 5 August 1916) was considered one of Britains most promising Edwardian composers. He was born in Paddington, London.

Not long after his birth, his family moved to York. George was the only child of Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth and his wife Julia Marguerite. Formally a professional singer she gave George his first music lessons.

In 1899 George won a scholarship to Eton College (1899-1904). In 1904 he went up to Oxford where he read Greats at Trinity College.

While at Oxford he was increasingly focused on music, eventually becoming the President of the University Music Club. He met and made friends with the folk song collector Cecil Sharp and the composer and folk song enthusiast Ralph Vaughan Williams.

George Butterworth and Vaughan Williams made several trips into the English countryside to collect folk songs.



At the outbreak of the First World War, Butterworth joined the British army. On 5 August during the Battle of the Somme, George Butterworth died after being shot by a sniper. 


He was 31 years old.

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When I was one-and-twenty poem by Alfred Edward Housman

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.