Thomas Hood Quotes

When he is forsaken, Withered and shaken,
What can an old man do but die?

Thus she stood amid the stooks,
Praising God with sweetest looks.

She stood breast-high amid the corn
Clasped by the golden light of morn,
Like the sweetheart of the sun,
Who many a glowing kiss had won.

Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied;
We thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died.

We watched her breathing through the night, Her breathing soft and low,
As in her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro.

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,—
In the cold grave, under the deep, deep sea,
Or in the wide desert where no life is found.

That very night while gentle sleep
The urchin's eyelids kissed,
Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn,
Through the cold and heavy mist;
And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gyves upon his wrist.

My head was like an ardent coal,
My heart as solid ice;
My wretched, wretched soul, I knew,
Was at the Devil's price:
A dozen times I groaned: the dead
Had never groaned but twice!

And lo! the universal air
Seemed lit with ghastly flame;
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes
Were looking down in blame.

'Twas in the prime of summer-time
An evening calm and cool,
And four-and-twenty happy boys
Came bounding out of school:
There were some that ran and some that leapt,
Like troutlets in a pool.

Oh, God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!

Oh, Men, with Sisters dear!
Oh, Men, with Mothers and Wives!
It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives!

Work! work! work!
While the cock is crowing aloof!
And work—work—work,
Till the stars shine through the roof!

My tears must stop, for every drop Hinders needle and thread.

No blessed leisure for love or hope, But only time for grief.