Skip to content
Linespedia

That out of sight is out of mind

By Arthur Hugh Clough

Topics: classic

That out of sight is out of mind     Is true of most we leave behind;     It is not sure, nor can be true,     My own and only love, of you.     They were my friends, twas sad to part;     Almost a tear began to start;     But yet as things run on they find     That out of sight is out of mind.     For men, that will not idlers be,     Must lend their hearts to things they see;     And friends who leave them far behind,     When out of sight are out of mind.     I blame it not; I think that when     The cold and silent meet again,     Kind hearts will yet as erst be kind,     Twas out of sight, was out of mind.     I knew it when we parted, well,     I knew it, but was loth to tell;     I felt before, what now I find,     That out of sight is out of mind.     That friends, however friends they were,     Still deal with things as things occur,     And that, excepting for the blind,     Whats out of sight is out of mind.     But love, the poets say, is blind;     So out of sight and out of mind     Need not, nor will, I think, be true,     My own and only love, of you.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"That out of sight is out of mind..."

"That out of sight is out of mind" is a quintessential example of Arthur Hugh Clough's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Arthur Hugh Clough

"That out of sight is out of mind..." by Arthur Hugh Clough

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was, and lo, have been;     I, God, am nought: a shade of thought,     Which, but by darkness see"

"These are the words of Jacobs wives, the words     Which Leah spake and Rachel to his ears,     When, in the shade at eventide, he sat     By"

"To spend uncounted years of pain,     Again, again, and yet again,     In working out in heart and brain     The problem of our being here;"

"On grass, on gravel, in the sun,     Or now beneath the shade,     They went, in pleasant Kensington,     A prentice and a maid.     That Sun"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Arthur Hugh Clough

About Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) was an English poet whose work explores Victorian doubt and moral uncertainty. His poems "Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth" and "The Latest Decalogue" are sharp, thoughtful, and still widely anthologized.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Cease, empty Faith, the Spectrum saith,     I was,..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.