Careful Words

absence (n.)

'T is said that absence conquers love;

But oh believe it not!

I 've tried, alas! its power to prove,

But thou art not forgot.

Frederick W. Thomas (1808-1866): Absence conquers Love.

Lord John Russell, alluding to an expression used by him ("Conspicuous by his absence") in his address to the electors of the city of London, said, "It is not an original expression of mine, but is taken from one of the greatest historians of antiquity."

Days of absence, sad and dreary,

Clothed in sorrow's dark array,—

Days of absence, I am weary:

She I love is far away.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): Days of Absence.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder:

Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!

Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839): Isle of Beauty.

I dote on his very absence.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder:

Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!

Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839): Isle of Beauty.

  Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it.

Charles Lamb (1775-1834): Amicus Redivivus.

Absence of occupation is not rest,

A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Retirement. Line 623.

I find that absence still increases love.—Charles Hopkins: To C. C.