Who made the world I cannot tell; ‘Tis made, and here am I in hell. My hand, though now my knuckles bleed, I never soiled with such a deed.
A. E. HOUSMANWhen the journey’s over, There’ll be time enough to sleep.
More A. E. Housman Quotes
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Stone, steel, dominions pass, Faith too, no wonder; So leave alone the grass That I am under.
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Some men are more interesting than their books but my book is more interesting than its man.
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Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.
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Hope lies to mortals And most believe her, But man’s deceiver Was never mine.
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Tomorrow, more’s the pity, Away we both must hie, To air the ditty and to earth I.
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Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour, He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower Its strength, and struck.
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All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use.
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They say my verse is sad: no wonder; Its narrow measure spans Tears of eternity, and sorrow, Not mine. but man’s.
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And how am I to face the odds Of man’s bedevilment and God’s? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.
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All knots that lovers tie Are tied to sever. Here shall your sweetheart lie, Untrue for ever.
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Give me a land of boughs in leaf A land of trees that stand; Where trees are fallen there is grief; I love no leafless land.
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We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more.
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Do not ever read books about versification: no poet ever learnt it that way. If you are going to be a poet, it will come to you naturally and you will pick up all you need from reading poetry.
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Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.
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I think that to transfuse emotion – not to transmit thought but to set up in the reader’s sense a vibration corresponding to what was felt by the writer – is the peculiar function of poetry.
A. E. HOUSMAN