Earth and high heaven are fixed of old and founded strong.
A. E. HOUSMANThe thoughts of others were light and fleeting, Of lovers’ meeting Or luck or fame. Mine were of trouble, And mine were steady; So I was ready When trouble came.
More A. E. Housman Quotes
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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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I, a stranger and afraid, in a world I never made.
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When the journey’s over, There’ll be time enough to sleep.
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When the journey’s over/There’ll be time enough to sleep.
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They put arsenic in his meat And stared aghast to watch him eat; They poured strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up.
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There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
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Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover; Breath’s aware that will not keep. Up, lad: when the journey’s over then there’ll be time enough to sleep.
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To justify God’s ways to man.
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Therefore, since the world has still Much good, but much less good than ill.
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This is for all ill-treated fellows Unborn and unbegot, For them to read when they’re in trouble And I am not.
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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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But men at whiles are sober And think by fits and starts. And if they think, they fasten Their hands upon their hearts.
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And malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man.
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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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The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.
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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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Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
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The thoughts of others Were light and fleeting, Of lovers’ meeting Or luck or fame. Mine were of trouble, And mine were steady; So I was ready When trouble came.
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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.
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Hope lies to mortals And most believe her, But man’s deceiver Was never mine.
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I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.
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Oh, ’tis jesting, dancing, drinking Spins the heavy world around.
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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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Ten thousand times I’ve done my best and all’s to do again.
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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.
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And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears.
A. E. HOUSMAN