Melancholy

Explore 12 quotes about Melancholy

There's not a string attuned to mirth
But has its chord in melancholy.

Thomas Hood

Ode to Melancholy

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Topic

Yin and yang Melancholy

Author

Thomas Hood

Source

Ode to Melancholy

Language

English

Time

1827 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Ode to Melancholy." The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leander, Lycus the Centaur and Other Poems. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green/Philadelphia: E. Littell, 1827.

Current Citation

Hood, Thomas. "Ode to Melancholy." Selected Poems of Thomas Hood. Harvard University Press, 1970.

Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

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Topic

The beach Waves Melancholy

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Dover Beach

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, I. 9.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, I. 9.

It was a real slow walk in a real sad rain.

Johnny Cash

Drive On

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Topic

Melancholy Sadness Rain

Speaker

Johnny Cash

Source

Drive On Back In Black

Medium

Song

Genre

Country music

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Cash, Johnny. "Drive On." American Recordings. American Recordings, 1994.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

Robert Frost

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Read Acquainted with the Night at Poetry Foundation

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Topic

Night Depression Melancholy

Author

Robert Frost

Source

Acquainted with the Night

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frost, Robert. "Acquainted with the Night." The Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 1928, st. 1, I. 1.

He felt the loyalty we all feel to unhappiness—the sense that that is where we really belong.

Graham Greene

The Heart of the Matter

More information about this quote

Topic

Unhappiness Melancholy Depression

Author

Graham Greene

Source

The Heart of the Matter

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1948 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Greene, Graham. The Heart of the Matter. William Heinemann/The Viking Press, 1948, bk. 2, pt. 2, sec. 1.

We headed home holding hands. For a moment I dropped back to watch him walk. His sailor's gait always touched me. I knew one day I would stop and he would keep on going, but until then nothing could tear us apart.

Patti Smith

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Topic

Admiring another person Lost love Melancholy

Author

Patti Smith

Source

Just Kids

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

2010 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Smith, Patti. Just Kids. Ecco, 2010.

The most despairing songs are the loveliest of all,
I know immortal ones composed only of tears.

Alfred de Musset

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Topic

Melancholy

Author

Alfred de Musset

Source

A Night in May

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1835 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Musset, Alfred. "La nuit de mai [A Night In May]." Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 June 1835.

By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy.

William Shakespeare

Love's Labour's Lost

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Topic

Melancholy Broken heart Love

Speaker

Lord Berowne

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Love's Labour's Lost

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1597 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Love's Labour's Lost. 1597, England, UK, act 4, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Love's Labour's Lost." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 4, sc. 3.

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Alfred Tennyson

The Princess

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Topic

Looking back Changing of seasons Passage of time Melancholy

Author

Alfred Tennyson

Source

The Princess

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1847 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tennyson, Alfred. The Princess. London: Edward Moxon, 1847, pt. 4.

Current Citation

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. "The Princess." Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works, edited by Adam Roberts. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 4.

Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

Milan Kundera

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Topic

Love Melancholy

Author

Milan Kundera

Source

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Medium

Novel

Language

Czech

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Kundera, Milan. L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être [The Unbearable Lightness of Being]. Gallimard, 1984.

Current Citation

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Perennial, 2009.

All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.

Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy

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Topic

Melancholy

Author

Robert Burton

Source

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1621 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burton, Robert. "The Author's Abstract of Melancholy." The Anatomy of Melancholy. Oxford: Henry Cripps, 1621.

Current Citation

Burton, Robert. "The Author's Abstract of Melancholy." The Anatomy of Melancholy, edited by Holbrook Jackson. New York Review Books, 2001.

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

To a Skylark

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More information about this quote

Topic

Melancholy Yin and yang

Author

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Source

To a Skylark

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1820 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "To a Skylark." Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems. London: Charles and James Ollier, 1820, I. 88.

Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "To a Skylark." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, I. 88.