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Be Still, My Soul, Be Still
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7.7
/10
(10
votes)
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Be still, my soul, be still; the arms you bear are brittle,
Earth and high heaven are fixt of old and founded strong.
Think rather,-- call to thought, if now you grieve a little,
The days when we had rest, O soul, for they were long.
Men loved unkindness then, but lightless in the quarry
I slept and saw not; tears fell down, I did not mourn;
Sweat ran and blood sprang out and I was never sorry:
Then it was well with me, in days ere I was born.
Now, and I muse for why and never find the reason,
I pace the earth, and drink the air, and feel the sun.
Be still, be still, my soul; it is but for a season:
Let us endure an hour and see injustice done.
Ay, look: high heaven and earth ail from the prime foundation;
All thoughts to rive the heart are here, and all are vain:
Horror and scorn and hate and fear and indignation--
Oh why did I awake? when shall I sleep again?
Alfred Edward Housman
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Read poems about / on: sorry, heaven, hate, sleep, fear, sun, spring, running
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Comments about this poem (Be Still, My Soul, Be Still
by
Alfred Edward Housman
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Alfred Edward Housman
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Michael Pruchnicki
(6/17/2009 1:33:00 PM) |
Just to clear up Straw's confusion about theology -
'Earth and high heaven are fixt of old and founded strong' means that 'high heaven and earth ail from from the prime foundation', that is, from the very beginning the troubles that break the human heart have always been and always will be with human kind. That is the very nature of existence. We are all flawed creatures in an imperfect world full of 'horror and scorn and hate and fear and indignation', doomed to endure. This is NOT an adolescent whine as much as it is the comment of a Stoic philosopher (one should remain indifferent to the external world) - the speaker says life soon passes, because we live but for a season!
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Kevin Straw
(6/17/2009 5:50:00 AM) |
A long, if poetic, adolescent (“everyone’s against me”) whinge which is not served by the risible “Then it was well with me, in days ere I was born.” - unless of course AEH believed that he and his soul were “alive” to what was happening outside the womb. If he did, then he contradicts this notion by the idea that he and his soul “slept and saw not”. And I would like to know how theologically he reconciles “Earth and high heaven are fixt of old and founded strong.” with “…high heaven and earth ail from the prime foundation…”
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Wendy Bureau
(6/17/2008 12:10:00 PM) |
Very well written with a voice unmistakable. Good imagery and flow, my first read here on PoemHunter, and very much enjoyed. Write on Poet!
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Janri Gogeshvili
(6/17/2008 11:05:00 AM) |
Melancholy of an ornament for talented …
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Jade Leven
(6/17/2007 4:22:00 PM) |
michelle is right goths love this stuff... however, i think this one also has a feeling of realization to it. it's not just despair. i like it.
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Dimitris(Jimmy) Psachos
(6/17/2007 5:41:00 AM) |
Brings memories from a Poe poem, I think . Sad, profound and honest to his weary thoughts, it keeps an ancient aura to past glories and spectacles...or is it an uncertain future?
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Michelle Garner
(6/17/2007 4:54:00 AM) |
Bet Goths will love this one, rather sad and dreary
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Alfred Edward Housman
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