Easter! Easter! Easter! and a bit of cricket

Edith Sitwell is one of the funniest and acerbic writers I know. Her comment on AE Housman's theme of death and cricket in "A Shropshire Lad", goes

Out I marched with bat and pad
See the son of grief at cricket
Trying to be glad..

"..."I do not think that Professor Housman has explained to us clearly enough how it is that cricket has saved men from dying. If he means us to understand that cricket, and cricket alone, has prevented men from committing suicide, then their continuation on this earth seems hardly worth while."
for my friend, G.