WIST Quotations

Smith, Alexander -- “A Life-Drama,” Sc. IV (1853)

Dave — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:10:49 +0000

We twain have met like the ships upon the sea,
Who hold an hour’s converse, so short, so sweet;
One little hour! And then, away they speed
On lonely paths, through mist and cloud and foam,
To meet no more.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“A Life-Drama,” Sc. IV (1853)

Full text.

Smith, Alexander -- “Horton,” ll. 570-571, City Poems (1857)

Dave — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:39:35 +0000

To our graves we walk
In the thick footprints of departed men.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“Horton,” ll. 570-571, City Poems (1857)
(Source)

Smith, Alexander -- “Men of Letters”

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles on the road.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“Men of Letters”

Smith, Alexander -- “The Fear of Dying” (1857)

Dave — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:21:12 +0000

In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“The Fear of Dying” (1857)

Smith, Alexander -- “The Fear of Dying” (1857)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:47:01 +0000

Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“The Fear of Dying” (1857)

Smith, Alexander -- “Unrest and Childhood”

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:14:49 +0000

We hear the wail of the remorseful winds
In their strange penance. And this wretched orb
Knows not the taste of rest; a maniac world,
Homeless and sobbing through the deep she goes.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
“Unrest and Childhood”

Full text.

Smith, Alexander -- Dreamthorp (1863)

Dave — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:09:33 +0000

Men hold the anniversaries of their birth, of their marriage, of the birth of their first-born, and they hold — although they spread no feast, and ask no friends to assist — many another anniversary besides. On many a day in every year does a man remember what took place on that self-same day in some former year, and chews the sweet or bitter herb of memory, as the case may be.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
Dreamthorp (1863)

Smith, Alexander -- Dreamthorp, ch. 12 (1863)

Dave — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:41:49 +0000

Good humor and generosity carry the day with the popular heart all the world over.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
Dreamthorp, ch. 12 (1863)

Smith, Alexander -- Essay (1863), “Of Death and the Fear of Dying”, Dreamthorp

Dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:51:52 +0000

Your death and my death are mainly of importance to ourselves. The black plumes will be stripped off our hearses within the hour; tears will dry, hurt hearts close again, our graves grow level with the church-yard, and although we are away, the world wags on. It does not miss us; and those who are near us, when the first strangeness of vacancy wears off, will not miss us much either.

Alexander Smith (1830-1867) Scottish poet
Essay (1863), “Of Death and the Fear of Dying”, Dreamthorp
(Source)