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

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,...

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...

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

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

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.

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...

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...

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.

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...

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....

Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land...

Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land...

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...

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,...

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.

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.

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.

You've spent your whole life running and running, trying to catch up with something that...

You've spent your whole life running and running, trying to catch up with something that...

The disappointment of manhood succeeds the delusion of youth.

The disappointment of manhood succeeds the delusion of youth.

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another