Here's the fifth stanza from the poem "Farewell to Barn and Stack and Tree" by A. E. Housman, which revolves around a country lad with guilt-stricken state of mind after murdering his brother Maurice. I have a few doubts.
“I wish you strength to bring you pride,
And a love to keep you clean,
And I wish you luck, come Lammastide,
At racing on the green.”
Who is the poet persona of this particular stanza? Most people say it is "The murderer"and he wishes Terence, his associate good luck. if so, After all, heTerrence doesn't seem to have committed anything wrong to be wished a "love to keep you clean".
And a very few deep-end analyses say that the murderer wishes the "dead man" of Maurice, believing in his next life after death... but, as for me, this view is not supported with textual evidence from the poem...
Wouldn't perhaps the narrator's persona be Terence wishing his close associate- the murderer "all these benedictions" during his abscond?
It seems that the conflict originated from a tense love affair among this trio. But, is it clear from the poem that it involved a woman?