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About this quote

What does it mean?
The poem describes carrying a deceased person home, honoring them as a member of the town even in death.
In plain terms
The speaker describes a funeral procession returning a townsman home.
What can you take from it?
Death returns everyone to rest.

Where it applies

  • attend a funeral
  • mourning
  • writing elegies

Putting it to work

  • writing eulogies
  • memorializing friends
  • reflecting on mortality

Questions to consider

  • What rituals honor the dead?
  • How does death affect a community?

Another view

This glosses over the grief and pain of death.

More from A. E. Housman

  1. Oh, when I was in love with you Then I was clean and brave, And miles around the wonder grew How well did I behave. And now the fancy passes by And nothing wil…

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  2. And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears.

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  3. His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away.

    Permalink to quote #16

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