There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
A. E. HousmanRead
The bells they sound on Bredon, And still the steeples hum. "Come all to church, good people"- Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; I hear you, I will come.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a tension between the call to communal worship and the individual's inner hesitance.
In this quote, A. E. Housman captures the conflict between societal expectations and personal desires. The bells of the church symbolize a communal call to worship, while the speaker's desire for the bells to be silent suggests an internal struggle with the idea of conformity and obligation versus personal belief and action. Ultimately, the speaker acknowledges the call and contemplates participation despite the noise, highlighting a nuanced relationship between individual choice and community influence.
Themes
BellsChurchWorshipCommunityIndividuality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a discussion on the tension between societal expectations and personal beliefs.
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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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