“Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.” — William Allingham | V2Melody

“Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.”

A wry observation on the craft of implication and restraint · Diary or prose writings

William Allingham

About William Allingham

William Allingham

19 March 1824–18 November 1889

William Allingham was born on 19 March 1824 in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, a small market town at the mouth of the River Erne, and died on 18 November 1889 at Hampstead in London. His literary reputation rests above all on a handful of extraordinarily durable lyrics: poems of rivers, birds, childhood, fairy lore…

More by William Allingham

Poems by William Allingham

The Fairies Listen

More remarks by William Allingham

“Does not the latent feeling that much of their striving is to no purpose tend to infuse large quantities of sham into men’s work?”

On the hollowness that can enter effort · Diary

“I always get back to the question, is it really necessary that men should consume so much of their bodily and mental energies in the machinery of civilized life?”

Questioning the cost of modern existence · Diary

“I have been an Official all my life, without the least turn for it. I never could attain a true official manner, which is highly artificial and handles trifles with ludicrously disproportionate gravity.”

Reflecting on the artificial gravity demanded by bureaucratic life · Diary