I do love Housman

[mme_hardy]

Her strong enchantments failing,
  Her towers of fear in wreck,
Her limbecks dried of poisons
  And the knife at her neck,

The Queen of air and darkness
  Begins to shrill and cry,
'O young man, O my slayer,
  To-morrow you shall die.'

O Queen of air and darkness,
  I think 'tis truth you say,
And I shall die to-morrow;
  But you will die to-day.

(Anybody want to expound on why it's "I shall" vs. "you will"?)

Comments

[white_hart]

In older British English usage, "shall" was used with first-person pronouns and "will" with second and third persons (see here for more exposition), with the other used to express determination to do something, so Housman is simply following the grammatical rule of his time; "I will" would have expressed an actual wish to die rather than an acceptance of fact.

[nineveh_uk]

The example I always remember for this one is "Cinderella, you shall go to the ball!" Though the poem does it rather nicely, too, with the two you shall/you will expressing the thing that is desired, but in the future, and the thing that is going to happen as fact right now.

I'm very fond of Housman, and this one is a favourite.

[mme_hardy]

I love Housman a lot. He has a limited emotional range (in verse), but within that range he's perfect.

[ellen_fremedon]

This! There's a good, if macabre, mnemonic (CN suicide):

A would-be suicide swims out to sea saying "I will drown! No one shall save me!" On his way he passes a hapless victim of cramp, who despairs "I shall drown! No one will save me."

[mme_hardy]

Oh, I *like* that.

[kore]

Heh, that's also how I learned it (from an old Espy book about words I think).

[ellen_fremedon]

Words at Play! That's where I learned it, too.

[kore]

DAMN I HAVE NEVER EVEN MET ANYONE WHO HEARD OF THAT BOOK BEFORE. I loved it as a kid! I still have it. He was great.

[mme_hardy]

Thank you so much.