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Authors:

A. E. Housman quotes

English Poet March 26, 1859 – April 30, 1936

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Quotes

If truth in hearts that perish. Could move the powers on high, I think the love I bear you. Should make you not to die. Sure, sure, if stedfast meaning, If single thought could save, The world might end to-morrow, You should not see the grave. This long and sure-set liking, This boundless will to please,-Oh, you should live for ever. If there were help in these. But now, since all is idle, To this lost heart be kind, Ere to a town you journey Where friends are ill to find. A. E. Housman
Shake hands, we shall never be friends; give over: I only vex you the more I try. All's wrong that ever I've done and said, And nought to help it in this dull head: Shake hands, goodnight, goodbye. But if you come to a road where danger Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share, Be good to the lad that loves you true. And the soul that was born to die for you, And whistle and I'll be there. A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman quote: "...down in lovely muck I’ve lain, Happy till I woke again."
...down in lovely muck I’ve lain, Happy till I woke again. A. E. Housman
Along the field as we came by A year ago, my love and I, The aspen over stile and stone Was talking to itself alone. 'Oh who are these that kiss and pass? A country lover and his lass; Two lovers looking to be wed; And time shall put them both to bed, But she shall lie with earth above, And he beside another love.' And sure enough beneath the tree There walks another love with me, And overhead the aspen heaves Its rainy-sounding silver leaves; And I spell nothing in their stir, But now... A. E. Housman
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
Good creatures, do you love your lives And have you ears for sense? Here is a knife like other knives, That cost me eighteen pence. I need but stick it in my heart And down will come the sky, And earth's foundations will depart And all you folk will die. A. E. Housman
The half-moon westers low, my love, And the wind brings up the rain; And wide apart lie we, my love, And seas between the twain. I know not if it rains, my love, In the land where you do lie; And oh, so sound you sleep, my love, You know no more than I. A. E. Housman
It nods and curtseys and recovers. When the wind blows above, The nettle on the graves of lovers. That hanged themselves for love. The nettle nods, the wind blows over, The man, he does not move, The lover of the grave, the lover. That hanged himself for love. A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman quote: "Halt by the headstone naming. The heart no longer stirred, And..."
Halt by the headstone naming. The heart no longer stirred, And say the lad that loved you. Was one that kept his word. A. E. Housman
Terence, this is stupid stuff: You eat your victuals fast enough; There can't be much amiss, 'tis clear, To see the rate you drink your beer. But oh, good Lord, the verse you make, It gives a chap the belly-ache. The cow, the old cow, she is dead; It sleeps well, the horned head; We poor lads, 'tis our turn now. To hear such tunes as killed the cow. Pretty friendship 'tis to rhyme. Your friends to death before their time. Moping melancholy mad: Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad. A. E. Housman
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
Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung. Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; but young men think it is, and we were young. A. E. Housman
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
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
If it chance your eye offends you, Pluck it out lad, and be sound:'Twill hurt, but here are salves to friend you, And many a balsam grows on ground. And if your hand or foot offend you, Cut it off, lad, and be whole; But play the man, stand up and end you, When your sickness is your soul. A. E. Housman

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