Memory sucks: The Pocket University 14 August 2023
Playwright Oliver Goldsmith also wrote poems.
A single poem today, from a man we’ve met time and again around these parts. And mostly because The Pocket University editors have thematically and biographically ordered their readings.1
Oliver Goldsmith’s “Memory” appears here:
O MEMORY, thou fond deceiver,
Still importunate and vain,
To former joys recurring ever,
And turning all the past to pain:
Thou, like the world, th’ oppress’d oppressing,
Thy smiles increase the wretch’s woe:
And he who wants each other blessing
In thee must ever find a foe.
Well before modern psychologists told us, as we know, that our thoughts turned to the past often bring us bitter regret, Goldsmith spelled it out.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Reading University Library and Pocket University to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.