There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
A. E. HousmanRead
Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour, He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower Its strength, and struck.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the inevitability of time and fate amidst struggles and misfortune.
A. E. Housman's quote illustrates the tension between personal struggle and the unstoppable passage of time. The imagery of a man who, despite feeling trapped and cursed by his circumstances, recognizes the inevitability of time as the clock strikes, symbolizes the burdens we carry and the reality that life continues regardless of our own difficulties. It serves as a contemplation of how we face our fate, often feeling powerless against the passage of time and the events that transpire in our lives.
Themes
TimeFateStruggleInevitablePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a reflective speech on the inevitability of life's challenges.
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.
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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.
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Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.
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And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
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Oh, 'tis jesting, dancing, drinking_x000D_ _x000D_ Spins the heavy world around.
A. E. HousmanRead
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