Timeline for "Wear the broom and climb the hedgerows" in Housman's "A Shropshire Lad"
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 1, 2024 at 20:57 | answer | added | Gareth Rees | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 1, 2024 at 18:19 | comment | added | Lambie | The twigs coming off the braches have thorns but not the branches per se of the tree. woodlands.co.uk/blog/tree-identification/hawthorn | |
| Jun 1, 2024 at 18:07 | comment | added | Lambie | @PeterShor Ok, so the switchecology.co.uk website is wrong? Mistaken? | |
| Jun 1, 2024 at 17:41 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Lambie: The trees have throrns. The bushes have thorns. See this webpage, which says; If you want a tree that kids won't climb, get a Hawthorn. If you want a hedge that no child, dog, or even cat will penetrate, get a Hawthorn. | |
| May 31, 2024 at 20:57 | comment | added | Lambie | @PeterShor hawthorn can be the trees or the bushes. I don't see bushes in the poem. And apparently, broom is also a plant. gutenberg.org/files/5720/5720-h/5720-h.htm I didn't know about broom. | |
| May 31, 2024 at 17:37 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Lambie: Except that the poem says that these hedgerows were made of hawthorn bushes, which would have been extremely painful to climb because of their thorns. | |
| May 31, 2024 at 17:29 | comment | added | Lambie | Large mature overgrown hedgerows that were basically a linear strip of woodland, these were great for climbing, switchecology.co.uk/blog/hedging-our-bets So that explains it. Wear the broom can just be putting in over/round your body with a strap so it does not interfere with climbing. I don't know if this is an answer or not. | |
| May 31, 2024 at 15:44 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | Picking 'May' blossom (Maying) is certainly a very old tradition. My guess is that he just means 'reach up into the high hedges to pick may'. | |
| May 31, 2024 at 13:48 | history | edited | Gareth Rees | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 31, 2024 at 13:36 | comment | added | Matt Thrower♦ | @PeterShor that was my initial assumption, but I've not been able to find anything to back that up. There are certainly plenty of hills in Shropshire. | |
| May 31, 2024 at 13:29 | history | edited | Gareth Rees | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 388 characters in body
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| May 31, 2024 at 12:14 | comment | added | Peter Shor | Could "climb the hedgerows" mean "climb the hills by walking alongside the hedgerows"? | |
| May 31, 2024 at 9:29 | history | asked | Gareth Rees | CC BY-SA 4.0 |