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.

Quote by A E Housman

Topics: Poetry Quotes

The troubles of our proud and angry dust are from eternity, and shall not fail....

The troubles of our proud and angry dust are from eternity, and shall not fail....

Malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.

Malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.

Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell....

Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell....

If a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the...

If a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the...

The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.

The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull,...

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull,...

The laws of God, the laws of man he may keep that will and can;...

The laws of God, the laws of man he may keep that will and can;...

Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over...

Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over...

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to...

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to...

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a...

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a...

Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think.

Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think.

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways...

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways...

I find Cambridge an asylum, in every sense of the word.

I find Cambridge an asylum, in every sense of the word.

The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.

The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.

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

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

And silence sounds no worse than cheers / After death has stopped the ears.

And silence sounds no worse than cheers / After death has stopped the ears.

Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king? Whether poor or rich,...

Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king? Whether poor or rich,...

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one...

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one...

My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that...

My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that...