Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.
A. E. HOUSMANTomorrow, more’s the pity, Away we both must hie, To air the ditty and to earth I.
More A. E. Housman Quotes
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Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose, But young men think it is, and we were young.
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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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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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To justify God’s ways to man.
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The mortal sickness of a mind too unhappy to be kind.
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Housman is one of my heroes and always has been. He was a detestable and miserable man. Arrogant, unspeakably lonely, cruel, and so on, but and absolutely marvellous minor poet, I think, and a great scholar.
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Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies, But keep your fancy free.
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And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears.
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When the journey’s over/There’ll be time enough to sleep.
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With rue my heart is laden For golden friends I had, For many a rose-lipped maiden And many a lightfoot lad.
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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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Ten thousand times I’ve done my best and all’s to do again.
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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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In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.
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Good religious poetry… is likely to be most justly appreciated and most discriminately relished by the undevout.
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He would not stay for me, and who can wonder? He would not stay for me to stand and gaze. I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder, And went with half my life about my ways.
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Earth and high heaven are fixed of old and founded strong.
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And malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man.
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Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure.
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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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The laws of God, the laws of man, He may keep that will and can; Not I: let God and man decree Laws for themselves and not for me.
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Hope lies to mortals And most believe her, But man’s deceiver Was never mine.
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I do not choose the right word, I get rid of the wrong one.
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Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough.
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They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,The lads that will die in their glory and never be old.
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Oh I have been to Ludlow fair, and left my necktie God knows where. And carried half way home, or near, pints and quarts of Ludlow beer.
A. E. HOUSMAN