The Wind's Twelve Quarters
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
The Wind's Twelve Quarters32 bar Jig for 3 Couples in a 4 Couple Set, devised by Katherine Nealley (2019), Published in Delaware Valley Gold.
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Dance Instruction Videos
The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The title of this dance is taken from a poem in the collection A Shropshire Lad - Poem by A. E. Housman.Speak now, and I will answer;
How shall I help you, say;
Ere to the wind's twelve quarters
I take my endless way.
As the figures unfold, each participant travels in every direction before the dance concludes.
A Shropshire Lad is a collection of 63 poems by A. E. Housman, first published in 1896.
Centred on an idealised rural Shropshire, the poems explore themes such as youth, loss, and the inevitability of death. Originally self-published after rejection by publishers, the book grew in popularity during the Boer War and later the First World War, when its reflections on mortality and duty resonated with soldiers and the public.
Though written in plain language, the verses often contain deeper literary references. The collection's success led to musical settings by composers such as Vaughan Williams and Butterworth, helping bring the poems to wider attention.
A Shropshire Lad has remained in print ever since, with many of its lines becoming widely recognised and quoted.
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Text from this original A Shropshire Lad article on Wikisource.
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