The Collected Poems Quotes

“Could man be drunk for ever
      With liquor, love, or fights,
Lief should I rouse at morning
      And lief lie down of nights.

But men at whiles are sober
      And think by fits and starts,
And if they think, they fasten
      Their hands upon their hearts.”
― A.E. Housman, The Collected Poems

“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, The Collected Poems

“When Green Buds Hang in the Elm Like Dust

When green buds hang in the elm like dust
And sprinkle the lime like rain,
Forth I wander, forth I must,
And drink of life again.

Forth I must by hedgerow bowers
To look at the leaves uncurled,
And stand in the fields where cuckoo-flowers
Are lying about the world.”
― A.E. Housman, Complete Poetical Works of A. E. Housman

“A stranger and afraid in a world I never made.”
― A.E. Housman, Complete Poems

“Iniquity it is; but pass the can.
My lad, no pair of kings our mothers bore;
Our only portion is the estate of man:
We want the moon, but we shall get no more.

(Last Poems, IX)”
― A.E. Housman, The Collected Poems of A.E. Housman

“LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.”
― A.E. Housman, The Collected Poems of A.E. Housman

“Here are the skies, the planets seven,
And all the starry train:
Content you with the mimic heaven,
And on the earth remain.

(Additional Poems, V)”
― A.E. Housman, The Collected Poems of A.E. Housman

“Oh on my breast in days hereafter
Light the earth should lie,
Such weight to bear is now the air,
So heavy hangs the sky.

(Additional Poems, X)”
― A.E. Housman, The Collected Poems of A.E. Housman