From morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,- A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropp'd from the Zenith like a falling star.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the transient nature of life, emphasizing how quickly time passes from day to day.
John Milton uses the imagery of a summer's day to illustrate the fleeting nature of human existence. The transition from morning to evening symbolizes the stages of life, suggesting that just as the day ends and the sun sets, so too do our lives come to an end, much like a star falling from the sky. This serves as a reminder of the inevitability of mortality and the importance of cherishing every moment.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a reflective speech about appreciating life.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms: Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide; They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones.
Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss
The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.
Apt words have power to suage the tumors of a troubled mind.
The most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and to not give in to peer pressure to try to be something that you're not.
That the sum of a man's life was not where he wound up but in the details that brought him there. That we made mistakes. I closed my eyes, sick of the riddles, and to my surprise all I could see were dandelions-as if they had been painted on the fields of my imagination, a hundred thousand suns. And I remembered something else that makes us human: faith, the only weapon in our arsenal to battle doubt.
I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life.
Learn to respect this sacred moment of birth, as fragile, as fleeting, as elusive as dawn.
Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on, and later we may again touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life, neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey-castle sequence of bumpings-into and tumblings-apart.
I'm in a place in my life where I get offered parts that I didn't get offered before - fathers and uncles and grandfathers and so on. And it took me a long time to get to that place, but I'm glad because it opens up new territory.
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