Thomas Hood Quotes

Thomas Hood was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, Athenaeum, and Punch. He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works. Hood, never robust, lapsed into invalidism by the age of 41 and died at the age of 45. William Michael Rossetti in 1903 called him "the finest English poet" between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson. Hood was the father of playwright and humorist Tom Hood . Wikipedia  

✵ 23. May 1799 – 3. May 1845
Thomas Hood photo

Works

Ruth
Thomas Hood
The Death-Bed
Thomas Hood
Thomas Hood: 50   quotes 1   like

Famous Thomas Hood Quotes

“A man that's fond precociously of stirring,
Must be a spoon.”

Morning Meditations (1839), St. 10.
1830s

Thomas Hood Quotes about heart

“But evil is wrought by want of thought,
As well as want of heart.”

The Lady's Dream http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_7.htm#246, st. 16 (1827).
1820s

“Peace and rest at length have come
All the day's long toil is past,
And each heart is whispering, "Home,
Home at last."”

Home at last; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Each cloud-capt mountain is a holy altar;
An organ breathes in every grove;
And the full heart 's a Psalter,
Rich in deep hymn of gratitude and love.”

Ode to Rae Wilson; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“And there is ev'n a happiness
That makes the heart afraid!”

Ode to Melancholy http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_2.htm#057, st. 6 (1827).
1820s

Thomas Hood: Trending quotes

“No solemn sanctimonious face I pull,
Nor think I'm pious when I'm only bilious;
Nor study in my sanctum supercilious,
To frame a Sabbath Bill or forge a Bull.”

Ode to Rae Wilson; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

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

Ode to Melancholy, st. 8.
1820s

Thomas Hood Quotes

“Home-made dishes that drive one from home.”

Her Honeymoon; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“For my part, getting up seems not so easy
By half as lying.”

Morning Meditations (1839).
1830s

“Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun!”

The Bridge of Sighs (1844), st. 9.
1840s

“Boughs are daily rifled
By the gusty thieves,
And the book of Nature
Getteth short of leaves.”

The Season; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“There's a double beauty whenever a swan
Swims on a lake with her double thereon.”

Her Honeymoon; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

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

St. 5.
1840s, The Song of the Shirt (1843)

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

Ruth; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold.”

Her Moral; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“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.”

The Death-Bed; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old
To the very verge of the churchyard mould.”

Her Moral; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

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

The Death-Bed; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Another tumble! That's his precious nose!”

Parental Ode to my infant Son; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Oh would I were dead now,
Or up in my bed now,
To cover my head now,
And have a good cry!”

A Table of Errata; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

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

Spring it is cheery; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

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

1840s, The Song of the Shirt (1843)

“I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence.”

Ode. Autmn http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_5.htm#195b, st. 1 (1827).
1820s

“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.”

Ruth; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Pity it is to slay the meanest thing.”

Plea of the Midsummer Fairies; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Oh bed! oh bed! delicious bed!
That heaven upon earth to the weary head.”

Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg. Her Dream http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_4.htm#146, st. 7.
1840s

“Straight down the Crooked Lane,
And all round the Square.”

A Plain Direction http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15652/15652-h/15652-h.htm#poem_135, st. 1.
1820s

“Seem'd washing his hands with invisible soap
In imperceptible water.”

Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg. Her Christening http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_3.htm#115, st. 10 (1841-1843).
1840s

“Even God's providence
Seeming estranged.”

The Bridge of Sighs (1844).
1840s

“Never go to France
Unless you know the lingo,
If you do, like me,
You will repent, by jingo.”

French and English, st. 1 (1839).
1830s

“A wife who preaches in her gown,
And lectures in her night-dress.”

The Surplice Question; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way,
Tormenting himself with his prickles.”

Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg. Her Dream http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/eop_hood_poetical_works_4.htm#146 (Part the Third, 1840).
1840s

“Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms.”

Faithless Nellie Gray; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Sewing at once a double thread,
A shroud as well as a shirt.”

1840s, The Song of the Shirt (1843)

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