Quote#Wisdom
I, too, often shrivel the grey shreds
Quote byEdward Thomas · 1878–1917
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Old Man", line 26, cited from Collected Poems (London: Selwyn & Blount, 1920), p. 98..
English (original)
I, too, often shrivel the grey shreds, Sniff them and think and sniff again and try Once more to think what it is I am remembering, Always in vain. I cannot like the scent, Yet I would rather give up others more sweet, With no meaning, than this bitter one.
— Edward Thomas
More from Edward Thomas
To envy a man is to misunderstand him or yourself.
If I should ever by chance grow rich I'll buy Codham, Cockridden, and Childerditch, Roses, Pyrgo, and Lapwater, And let them all to my eldest daughter.
The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood This Eastertide call into mind the men, Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should Have gathered them and will do never again.
I like to think how easily Nature will absorb London as she absorbed the mastodon, setting her spiders to spin the winding-sheet and her worms to fill in the grave, and her grass to cover it pitifully up, adding flowers—as an unknown hand …
There is nothing at the end of any road better than may be found beside it.
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.