E. Housman
E. Housman
cheers death silence sounds stopped worse
And silence sounds no worse than cheers / After death has stopped the ears.
lads lays thinking
Think no more; 'tis only thinking / Lays lads underground.
fellows trouble
This is for all ill-treated fellows - Unborn and unbegot, For them to read when they're in trouble And I am not
right-words
I do not choose the right word, I get rid of the wrong one.
humorous hands world
Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell. My hand, though now my knuckles bleed, I never soiled with such a deed.
drinking men way
To justify God's ways to man.
asylums cambridge
I find Cambridge an asylum, in every sense of the word.
poison body belief
Mithridates, he died old. Housman's passage is based on the belief of the ancients that Mithridates the Great [c. 135-63 B.C.] had so saturated his body with poisons that none could injure him. When captured by the Romans he tried in vain to poison himself, then ordered a Gallic mercenary to kill him.
strong heaven earth
Earth and high heaven are fixed of old and founded strong.
humorous trouble ill
This is for all ill-treated fellows Unborn and unbegot, For them to read when they're in trouble And I am not.
drinking food book
And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
personal-opinions perception literature
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.
funny sarcastic air
In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.
over-you littles lovers
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.