phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Absence . . .

Posted by Bob on March 15, 2004

In Reply to: Absence . . . posted by R. Berg on March 15, 2004

: : : I know that there is another part to this....does anyone know what it is? Thanks for your help.

: : ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER -- "The Roman elegiac poet Sextus Propertius rendered the earliest form of this saying in Elegies (c. 26 B.C.) as 'Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows.'...The modern wording...appeared as the opening line of an anonymous English poem in 1602, but it was the British songwriter Thomas Haynes Bayly's book 'Isle of Beauty' that helped make it a popular sentiment in the Victorian drawing rooms of the day." From Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New; by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

: There's no other part. That is, the saying is complete in itself rather than being the first half of something.

Perhaps "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder" has another part...

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.