Quotations

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Let’s begin with a quiz question: what is the title of the poem in which the phrase ‘dark Satanic Mills’ appears? Is it a) ‘Jerusalem’ or b) Milton?

Most people would probably go for a), but although we know commonly know William Blake’s poem (or the words to the hymn ‘Jerusalem’, taken from Blake’s poem) by that title, strictly speaking those ‘dark Satanic Mills’ first appeared in a much longer work, an epic poem titled Milton: A Poem (1804-8).

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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Here’s a quiz question for you. Who was the first high-profile writer to use the phrase ‘mad as a hatter’? How about we narrow it down a little more, and ask: which high-profile Victorian writer first used the phrase ‘mad as a hatter’?

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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon’. This is one of many famous Bible quotations. Indeed, it is one of many famous quotations from the New Testament. More specifically, it is one of many famous quotations from a single moment in the New Testament: the Sermon on the Mount.

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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.’ Who said, or wrote, this well-known sentence? Karl Marx? Vladimir Lenin?

Not either of those political figures, but someone who lived quite a long time before either of them.

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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter’. This line is among the most famous quotations found in the work of John Keats (1795-1821). But what does the line mean, and how should we analyse it? How can ‘unheard’ melodies be of any use to anyone?

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