A. E. Housman Quotes - Page 3

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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

  Home, Beer, Way

  Shropshire Lad (1896) no. 62

  28 Copy quote

• There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.

  A. E. Housman

  Soul, Fence, Halt

  A. E. Housman (1990). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.37, Courier Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• June suns, you cannot store them To warm the winter's cold, The lad that hopes for heaven Shall fill his mouth with mould.

  A. E. Housman

  Winter, June, Heaven

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.22, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Because I liked you better Than suits a man to say, It irked you, and I promised I'd throw the thought away. To put the world between us We parted stiff and dry: 'Farewell,' said you, 'forget me.' 'Fare well, I will,' said I. If e'er, where clover whitens The dead man's knoll, you pass, And no tall flower to meet you Starts in the trefoiled grass, Halt by the headstone shading The heart you have not stirred, And say the lad that loved you Was one that kept his word.

  A. E. Housman

  Flower, Farewell, Heart

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.

  A. E. Housman

  Lying, Sleep, Night

  A. E. Housman (2012). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.9, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

• You smile upon your friend to-day, To-day his ills are over; You hearken to the lover's say, And happy is the lover. 'Tis late to hearken, late to smile, But better late than never: I shall have lived a little while Before I die for ever.

  A. E. Housman

  Over You, Littles, Lovers

  A. E. Housman (2006). “50 Poemas”, p.70, Editorial Renacimiento

  6 Copy quote

• How clear, how lovely bright, How beautiful to sight Those beams of morning play; How heaven laughs out with glee Where, like a bird set free, Up from the eastern sea Soars the delightful day. To-day I shall be strong, No more shall yield to wrong, Shall squander life no more; Days lost, I know not how, I shall retrieve them now; Now I shall keep the vow I never kept before. Ensanguining the skies How heavily it dies Into the west away; Past touch and sight and sound Not further to be found, How hopeless under ground Falls the remorseful day.

  A. E. Housman

  Beautiful, Strong, Morning

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  A. E. Housman

  Time, Travel, Lying

  8 Copy quote

• When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, `Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.' But I was one-and-twenty No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, `The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue.' And I am two-and-twenty And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

  A. E. Housman

  Wise, Heart, Men

  Shropshire Lad (1896) no. 13

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  A. E. Housman

  God, Letting Go, Men

  1922 Last Poems, no.12.

  7 Copy quote

• The fairies break their dances And leave the printed lawn.

  A. E. Housman

  Angel, Fairy, Break

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.120, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• The troubles of our proud and angry dust are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

  A. E. Housman

  Beer, Dust, Sky

  Last Poems (1922) no. 9

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Peculiar, Vibrations

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.154, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  A. E. Housman

  Morning, Memories, Skins

  The Name and Nature of Poetry (1933)

  13 Copy quote

• Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

  A. E. Housman

  Hair, Fists, Prison

  'Collected Poems' (1939) 'Additional Poems' no. 18

  20 Copy quote

• 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.

  A. E. Housman

  Heart, Hands, Way

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.56, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.

  A. E. Housman

  Sarcastic, Writing, Thinking

  9 Copy quote

• 'Tis spring; come out to ramble
  The hilly brakes around,
  For under thorn and bramble
  About the hollow ground
  The primroses are found.
  And there's the windflower chilly
  With all the winds at play,
  And there's the Lenten lily
  That has not long to stay
  And dies on Easter day.

  A. E. Housman

  Easter, Spring, Wind

  A. E. Housman (2012). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.20, Courier Corporation

  12 Copy quote

• These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead. The British regulars who made the retreat from Mons, beginning August 24, 1914.

  A. E. Housman

  Fall, August, Heaven

  1922 Last Poems, no.37,'Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries'.

  7 Copy quote

• Tomorrow, more's the pity, Away we both must hie, To air the ditty and to earth I.

  A. E. Housman

  Air, Earth, Tomorrow

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.143, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Stone, steel, dominions pass, Faith too, no wonder; So leave alone the grass That I am under.

  A. E. Housman

  Steel, Stones, Dominion

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.24, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more.

  A. E. Housman

  Peace, Darkness, Earth

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.47, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

• Mithridates, he died old. Housman's passage is based on the belief of the ancients that Mithridates the Great [c. 135-63 B.C.] had so saturated his body with poisons that none could injure him. When captured by the Romans he tried in vain to poison himself, then ordered a Gallic mercenary to kill him.

  A. E. Housman

  Poison, Body, Belief

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  A. E. Housman

  Book, Reading, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of man,The lads that will die in their glory and never be old.

  A. E. Housman

  Men, Glory, Lad

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.45, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

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