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About this quote

What does it mean?
A small but powerful spirit dies and enters the vastness of death.
In plain terms
Her strong spirit struggled for breath and now lives in death.
What can you take from it?
Even a confined spirit faces the vastness of death.

Where it applies

  • mourning
  • reflecting on life
  • existential thought

Putting it to work

  • honor the dead
  • reflect on life limits

Questions to consider

  • What limits your spirit?
  • How do you face mortality?

Another view

It portrays death as inheritance rather than cessation.

More from Matthew Arnold

  1. Strew on her roses, roses, And never a spray of yew. In quiet she reposes: Ah! would that I did too.

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  2. How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves! Again - thou hearest? Eternal passion! Eternal pain!

    Permalink to quote #21
  3. What actions are the most excellent? Those, certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections: to those elementary feelings which s…

    Permalink to quote #18

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