Quote

Could man be drunk for ever With liquor, love, or fights, Lief should I rouse at morning And lief lie down of nights. But men at whiles are sober And think by fits and starts, And if they think, they fasten Their hands upon their hearts.

A. E. Housman

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A. E. Housman
Age: 77 †
Born: 1859
Born: January 1
Died: 1936
Died: January 1
Classical Philologist
Classical Scholar
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Worcs
A. E. Housman
Ever
Fit
Rouse
Heart
Hearts
Liquor
Men
Morning
Fits
Love
Fighting
Fights
Think
Lying
Nights
Thinking
Upon
Sober
Lief
Night
Starts
Whiles
Hands
Drunk
Fasten

More quotes by A. E. Housman

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'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.
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And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears.
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On Wenlock Edge the wood's in troubleHis forest fleece the Wrekin heavesThe wind it plies the saplings double, And thick on Severn snow the leaves.
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Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure.
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Happy bridegroom, Hesper brings All desired and timely things. All whom morning sends to roam, Hesper loves to lead them home. Home return who him behold, Child to mother, sheep to fold, Bird to nest from wandering wide: Happy bridegroom, seek your bride.
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Oh, 'tis jesting, dancing, drinking Spins the heavy world around.
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Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out. Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.
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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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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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Earth and high heaven are fixed of old and founded strong.
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Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
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The fairies break their dances And leave the printed lawn.
A. E. Housman
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When the journey's over/There'll be time enough to sleep.
A. E. Housman
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The rainy Pleiads wester Orion plunges prone, And midnight strikes and hastens, And I lie down alone.
A. E. Housman
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Good religious poetry... is likely to be most justly appreciated and most discriminately relished by the undevout.
A. E. Housman
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Existence is not itself a good thing, that we should spend a lifetime securing its necessaries: a life spent, however victoriously, in securing the necessaries of life is no more than an elaborate furnishing and decoration of apartments for the reception of a guest who is never to come. Our business here is not to live, but to live happily.
A. E. Housman
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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.
A. E. Housman
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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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A moment's thought would have shown him. But a moment is a long time, and thought is a painful process.
A. E. Housman
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Poetry is not the thing said, but the way of saying it.
A. E. Housman