There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
A. E. HousmanRead
And how am I to face the odds Of man's bedevilment and God's? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the struggle of an individual against the overwhelming challenges of life and the universe.
In this contemplative quote, A. E. Housman articulates the sentiment of feeling like an outsider in a complex world filled with difficulties and divine mysteries. It portrays the human experience of grappling with existence, highlighting feelings of fear and isolation as one confronts the inherent odds of life shaped by both human actions and higher powers, ultimately questioning the place of the individual within such a vast and unfathomable reality.
Themes
StruggleExistenceIsolationFearLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about resilience in the face of adversity.
More from A. E. Housman
All quotes βWho 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.
A. E. HousmanRead
I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.
A. E. HousmanRead
Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.
A. E. HousmanRead
And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
A. E. HousmanRead
Oh, 'tis jesting, dancing, drinking_x000D_ _x000D_ Spins the heavy world around.
A. E. HousmanRead
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Do not conceive that fine Clothes make fine Men, any more than fine feathers make fine Birds. A plain genteel dress is more admired and obtains more credit than lace and embroidery in the Eyes of the judicious and sensible.
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