This week’s choice is “Oh Who Is That Young Sinner” by A.E. Housman, which is a critique of prejudice.
Oh they’re taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
A.E. Housman (1859—1936)
Poem 370. Oh Who Is That Young Sinner
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they’re taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
‘Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
In the good old time ’twas hanging for the colour that it is;
Though hanging isn’t bad enough and flaying would be fair
For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.
Oh a deal of pains he’s taken and a pretty price he’s paid
To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
But they’ve pulled the beggar’s hat off for the world to see and stare,
And they’re haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.
Now ’tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet
And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.
A.E. Housman was homosexual at a time when open admission of the fact would have led to a prison sentence and disgrace, as it did for Oscar Wilde. This poem is Housman’s comment on Wilde’s trial and the obloquy heaped on a figure who had recently been lionised by society.
The first stanza shows us the convicted man, handcuffed and cursed by a mob, his expression mortified and all because his hair is a different colour to that which is acceptable.
The second stanza enlarges on the supposed vileness of his transgression—he is a shameful creature who would have been hanged in “the good old time” though in the public’s opinion, hanging is too good for this criminal and public whipping would be more appropriate for his crime.
The third stanza tells us that this execrable man has disguised or covered his hair, attempting to conceal its true hue from view but now the truth is out for “all the world to see and stare” and he’s being dragged to court to face judgment for his sin.
The last stanza tells us with a note of satisfaction that the felon will spend his time in hard labour in the prison at Portland in picking oakum (recycling tarred ropes and cords into basic fibres by manually unravelling them) and quarrying stone, summer and winter. The poem concludes by saying that the convict can only curse God in his sparse leisure time for making him the way he is.
It is obvious that the poem is not about hair colour. It is a coded but fairly overt comment on the public attitude to homosexuality at the time. Housman suggests that it is as incomprehensible as condemning a person for the colour of their hair or any other trait over which they have no control. Nonetheless, the mob and those who incite them to their enormities care little for this, and many good people have suffered for “the colour of their hair.”
It is interesting that Housman uses hair as a metaphor for homosexuality—Wilde’s own hair was long and flowing, as was that of many in the aesthetic movement to which he belonged.
There are several performances of the poem on YouTube: the best spoken version is Tom O’Bedlam’s. It has also been set to music, and Michael Morrissey’s version is the best I found.
I like this poem because it carries a hidden but nonetheless important message: people cannot help how they are born, and censuring them or inciting prejudice against them for their essential nature is wrong.