Mithridates, he died old. Housman's passage is based on the belief of the ancients that Mithridates the Great [c. 135-63 B.C.] had so saturated his body with poisons that none could injure him. When captured by the Romans he tried in vain to poison himself, then ordered a Gallic mercenary to kill him.

A. E. Housman

Categorized in : Belief Poison Body

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways where I went and cannot come again.

A. E. Housman

nostalgia shining land

All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use.

A. E. Housman

humans use

The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.

A. E. Housman

hypocrisy house integrity

I do not choose the right word, I get rid of the wrong one.

A. E. Housman

right-words

Into my hear an air that kills through yon far country blows what are those blue remembered hills what spires,what farms are those? that is the land of lost content I can see it shining plain the happy highways where I went and cannot come again.

A. E. Housman

air blow country

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose, But young men think it is, and we were young.

A. E. Housman

men life thinking

With rue my heart is laden For golden friends I had, For many a rose-lipped maiden And many a lightfoot lad.

A. E. Housman

rue rose heart

Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.

A. E. Housman

humor ignorance funny

Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think.

A. E. Housman

hurt beer men

Housman is one of my heroes and always has been. He was a detestable and miserable man. Arrogant, unspeakably lonely, cruel, and so on, but and absolutely marvellous minor poet, I think, and a great scholar.

A. E. Housman

lonely hero men

Give me a land of boughs in leaf A land of trees that stand; Where trees are fallen there is grief; I love no leafless land.

A. E. Housman

grief land giving

Oh I have been to Ludlow fair, and left my necktie God knows where. And carried half way home, or near, pints and quarts of Ludlow beer.

A. E. Housman

beer home way

A moment's thought would have shown him. But a moment is a long time, and thought is a painful process.

A. E. Housman

moments painful long

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

A. E. Housman

perception personal-opinions stupid

Ten thousand times I've done my best and all's to do again.

A. E. Housman

thousand excellence done

Why, if 'tis dancing you would be, There's brisker pipes than poetry. Say, for what were hop-yards meant, Or why was Burton built on Trent? Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man. Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink For fellows whom it hurts to think: Look into the pewter pot To see the world as the world's not.

A. E. Housman

hurt drinking men

And how am I to face the odds Of man's bedevilment and God's? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.

A. E. Housman

odds men world

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

A. E. Housman

white spring years

Tell me not here, it needs not saying, What tune the enchantress plays In aftermaths of soft September Or under blanching mays, For she and I were long acquainted And I knew all her ways.

A. E. Housman

tunes play long

June suns, you cannot store them To warm the winter's cold, The lad that hopes for heaven Shall fill his mouth with mould.

A. E. Housman

june winter heaven