20. Gay Love: A. E. Housman and W. H. Auden

About this Lecture

Lecture

We have already seen in this course examples of male-male love: in Marlowe’s Edward II we get the first male-male kiss on the English stage, while in D. H. Lawrence’s ‘The White Peacock’, we get the first graphic account of physical love between men. In this module, we look at the works of two more writers that explore male-male love: first, the poet A. E. Housman; and second, W. H. Auden, including the poems ‘Stop All the Clocks’ and ‘First Things First’

Course

This course explores the theme of love from the earliest English literature to the present day – from authors that you have likely heard of, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron and Keats, to authors that are perhaps less well-known. This is a course that celebrates love in all it forms and between all kinds of people.

Lecturer

John McRae is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies and Teaching Associate in the School of English at Nottingham University, and holds Visiting Professorships in China, Malaysia, Spain and the USA. He is co-author of The Routledge History of Literature in English with Ron Carter, and also wrote The Language of Poetry, Literature with a Small 'l' and the first critical edition of Teleny by Oscar Wilde and others.