Alfred Austin DL (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896.
Quotes
- Show me your garden, provided
it be your own, and I will tell you what you are
like.- The Garden that I Love (1905)
- O'er the wires the electric message came,
"He is no better; he is much the same."- On the Illness of the Prince of Wales (1910)
- An 1871 poem on the illness of the Prince of Wales, although there is some doubt that Austin actually wrote this part. That classic compendium "The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse" (2d ed. 1930; Capricorn paperback 1962) includes a dozen quotations from Austin but attributes this particular couplet (p. 17) to a "university poet unknown." It also provides a metrically more accurate first line, "Across the wires the gloomy message came," plus "not" for "no" in the second line.
- The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.
- As quoted in Growing with the Seasons (2008) by Frank & Vicky Giannangelo, p. 115.
Is Life Worth Living? (1896)
Is Life Worth Living? (1896)
- Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As Spring revives the year,
And hails us with the cuckoo's song,
To show that she is here;
- Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As there is wrong to right,
Wail of the weak against the strong,
Or tyranny to fight;
- So long as faith with freedom reigns
And loyal hope survives,
And gracious charity remains
To leaven lowly lives;
While there is one untrodden tract
For intellect or will,
And men are free to think and act,
Life is worth living still.
- He is dead already who doth not feel
Life is worth living still.
Prose Papers on Poetry (1910)
- No verse which is unmusical or obscure can be regarded as poetry whatever other qualities it may possess.
- Imagination in poetry, as distinguished from mere fancy is the transfiguring of the real or actual to the ideal.
External links
This article is issued from
Wikiquote.
The text is licensed under Creative
Commons - Attribution - Sharealike.
Additional terms may apply for the media files.