There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
A. E. HousmanRead
June suns, you cannot store them To warm the winter's cold, The lad that hopes for heaven Shall fill his mouth with mould.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the transient nature of joy and the futility of trying to retain happiness for future times.
A. E. Housman's quote captures the ephemeral quality of summer joys and the futility of trying to hold onto them for future comfort. It suggests that while the beauty and warmth of summer cannot be stored for the coldness of winter, one should not place hope in the distant rewards of life without acknowledging the reality of the present—implying that dreams of heaven might ultimately lead to disappointment if one neglects the inevitable hardships of life.
Themes
TransienceHappinessHopeLifeReality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a graduation speech to remind students to appreciate the present moment.
More from A. E. Housman
All quotes →Who 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
Similar quotes
Dreams are where we visit the many lands and landscapes of human possibility and discover the one where we feel at home. The great religious leaders were all dreamers.
Jonathan SacksRead
The entire most beautiful order of things that are very good, when their measures have been accomplished, is to pass away.
Saint AugustineRead
I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.
Henry FordRead
Thus we build on the ice, thus we write on the waves of the sea; the waves roaring pass away, the ice melts, and away goes our palace, like our thoughts.
Johann Gottfried HerderRead
The chief problem about death ... is the fear that there may be no afterlife - a depressing thought.
Woody AllenRead
America is a mistake, a giant mistake.
Sigmund FreudRead