The immortal lines

Explore timeless lines from poets that capture the essence of the human condition and enduring themes in literature.

To understand the human condition, we go back to memorable lines from poets which have stood the test of time with their truth and relevance. Any situation or event can trigger in us a sense of deja vu, and lines that lie in the synapses of memory spring to mind.

While we are familiar with the titans of literature, there are many less-renowned authors whose lines we quote without being aware of them, their names not up for a quick recall.

Thomas Gray, the precursor of the Romantics, has written one of the most-loved, oft-quoted poems in the English language, Elegy written in a country churchyard, full of wistful melancholy and a reflection on the transience of life.

The lines “Full many a gem of purest ray serene/ The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear...” tell us of unacknowledged genius in obscure corners, those who lived faithfully quiet lives and rest in unvisited tombs. The line “The paths of glory lead but to the grave” is a gentle reminder of our mortality.

Shakespeare, the ultimate wordsmith, had immortal lines on every conceivable vicissitude of life and dominated his age and time, his contemporaries largely living in his shadow. Yet, when we need to describe the mesmerising beauty of a woman, we turn to Christopher Marlowe’s “mighty line”, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burned the topless towers of Ilium... Oh thou art fairer than the evening air clad in the beauty of a thousand stars”. These lines bestow bounteous praise with an overwhelming emotion on an object of beauty.

Then there is Ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy in which a chorus of artists, poets and dreamers, “the movers and shakers of this world”, envision a new world heralding a change in the existing order. Many may have lost the battle but the vision endures in its glorious effort.

William Johnson Cory, a schoolmaster at Eton threw light on the enduring legacy of friendship and loss: “They told me Heraclitus, they told me you were dead/ They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed/ I wept as I remembered how often you and I/ have tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky”.