Once man was tossed about helplessly and incessantly by the wind that blew through him—now the toughest of all plants is more sensitive, more easily moved than he. In other words, death is better than life, nothing is better than anything. Nor is this a silly adolescent pessimism peculiar to Housman, as so many critics assure you. It is better to be dead than alive, best of all never to have been born—said a poet approvingly advertised as seeing life steadily and seeing it whole; and if I began an anthology of such quotations there it would take me a long time to finish. The attitude is obviously inadequate and just as obviously important.


Texts from Housman, p. 27 - Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

Randall Jarrell Quotes

Once man was tossed about helplessly and incessantly by the wind that blew through him—now the toughest of all plants is more sensitive, more...

Once man was tossed about helplessly and incessantly by the wind that blew through him—now the toughest of all plants is more sensitive, more...

Once man was tossed about helplessly and incessantly by the wind that blew through him—now the toughest of all plants is more sensitive, more...

Once man was tossed about helplessly and incessantly by the wind that blew through him—now the toughest of all plants is more sensitive, more...