Quote#World
But country folks who live beneath
Quote byArthur Hugh Clough · 1819–1861
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Dipsychus (1862), Pt. I, sc. v.
English (original)
But country folks who live beneath The shadow of the steeple; The parson and the parson’s wife, And mostly married people;Youths green and happy in first love, So thankful for illusion; And men caught out in what the world Calls guilt, in first confusion;And almost every one when age, Disease, or sorrows strike him, Inclines to think there is a God, Or something very like Him.
— Arthur Hugh Clough
More from Arthur Hugh Clough
Loving—if the answering breast Seem not to be thus possessed, Still in hoping have a care; If it do, beware, beware! But if in yourself you find it, Above all things—mind it, mind it!
Thought may well be ever ranging, And opinion ever changing, Task-work be, though ill begun, Dealt with by experience better; By the law and by the letter Duty done is duty done
’Twas on a sunny summer day I trod a mighty city’s street, And when I started on my way My heart was full of fancies sweet; But soon, as nothing could be seen, But countenances sharp and keen,
Truth is a golden thread, seen here and there In small bright specks upon the visible side Of our strange being’s party-coloured web.
Come back again, old heart! Ah me! Methinks in those thy coward fears There might, perchance, a courage be, That fails in these the manlier years; Courage to let the courage sink, Itself a coward base to think,
When panting sighs the bosom fill, And hands by chance united thrill At once with one delicious pain The pulses and the nerves of twain; When eyes that erst could meet with ease, Do seek, yet, seeking, shyly shun