Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
How is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? or are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections? The boy's flute-like voice has its own spring charm; but the man should yield a richer, deeper music.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the contrast between first love and later love, suggesting that later love may be richer and deeper due to greater life experience.
George Eliot's quote explores the notion that while first love is often romanticized and celebrated in poetry, subsequent loves may carry a depth and richness that arise from personal growth and life experiences. The poet contrasts the innocence and simplicity of a boy's first love—with its charming naivety—to the more profound and complex emotions of love experienced by a mature person, which is likened to deeper, more resonant music. This suggests that as individuals evolve, so too do their capacities for love, resulting in a more nuanced and meaningful emotional expression.
Themes
LoveExperiencePoetryRelationshipsEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the complexities of relationships during a couples' counseling session.
More from George Eliot
All quotes →You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
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She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel – that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
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Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
George EliotRead
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