''The enduring appeal of A. E. Housman's lyrical English poem, A Shropshire Lad, first published in 1896, lies perhaps in its gentle accessibility and in its universal theme of loss, of love and the passage of time. Certainly its popularity today appears undiminished as it continues to console and delight.The timeless quality of the Shropshire countryside, from the bucolic Clun valley to the bleak hills of Caer Caradoc, is captured by one of Shropshire's finest wildlife and landscape photographers, Gareth Thomas.Christopher Ricks, Professor of Poetry at Oxford University and President of the Housman Society, has written a thought-provoking introduction to this edition, touching on some of the reasons for the poem's lasting popularity, including its unusual combination of classical fortitude and romantic yearning.The biographical sketch of Housman by Ludlow historian David Lloyd sets the poem in context. ''