Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born, With nowhere yet to rest my head, Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker feels stuck between an old world that is gone and a new one that cannot yet exist.
- In plain terms
- I feel lost between a dead past and a future not yet born.
- What can you take from it?
- Transitions leave you feeling unsettled and alone.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where do you feel caught between worlds?
- How do you handle uncertainty?
Another view
This feeling may not apply to those in stable times.
More from Matthew Arnold
For rigorous teachers seized my youth, And purged its faith, and trimm'd its fire, Show'd me the high white star of Truth, There bade me gaze, and there aspire.
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Permalink to quote #27 Sanity - that is the great virtue of the ancient literature; the want of that is the great defect of the modern, in spite of its variety and power.
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