There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Eliot describes April as a harsh month that brings new life, awakening painful memories and desires.
In this quote, T. S. Eliot reflects on the complexity of spring as a time of renewal and awakening, juxtaposing the beauty of blooming flowers with the harshness of confronting past memories and desires. April signifies a transition, where the once dormant landscape comes alive, but this revival also stirs painful emotions and memories that might be uncomfortable for individuals to face, thus branding it cruel.
Themes
AprilCruelMemoryDesireSpringRenewal
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary analysis of Eliot's work, I might quote, 'April is the cruelest month' to discuss themes of rebirth.
More from T. S. Eliot
All quotes →Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.
T. S. EliotRead
I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.
T. S. EliotRead
If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
T. S. EliotRead
For I have known them all already, known them all— Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
T. S. EliotRead
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
T. S. EliotRead
Similar quotes
I sometimes hold it half a sin To put in words the grief I feel For words, like nature, half reveal And half conceal the soul within. But, for the unquiet heart and brain A use measured language lie's The sad mechanic exercise Like dull narcotic's, numbing pain In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er Like coarsest clothes against the cold But large grief which these enfold Is given in outline and no more.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
Or from Browning some "Pomegranate," which if cut deep down the middle Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity.
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningRead
Thou has left behind Powers that will work for thee,-air, earth, and skies! There 's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
William WordsworthRead
My self-confidence can be measured out in teaspoons mixed into my poetry, and it still always tastes funny in my mouth.
Sarah KayRead
The wolf howled under the leaves And spit out the prettiest feathers Of his meal of fowl: Like him I consume myself.
Arthur RimbaudRead
Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d the earth much? Have you practis’d so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Walt WhitmanRead