A. E. H ousman was born a hundred years ago this year. Somewhat in advance of his centenary, several studies of his life and work have recently appeared, provoking their spreading ripples of criticism and discussion, reminiscence and speculation. Little of what has been written, one feels, would have been much to Housman's own taste, for the general tendency has been to probe with more enterprise than delicacy into experiences and emotions that he himself had chosen, for the most part, to conceal.