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

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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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

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;...

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....

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....

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.

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...