Quotations and Literature Forum

is there anyone have a quotation that has two different meaning?

shuyin

Here is an excerpt from a poem.

My soul is a dark ploughed field
in the cold rain;
My soul is a broken field
Ploughed by pain.

--Sara Teasdale, The Broken Field

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At first glance this appeared to me to be singular. The more I read it the more I was convinced that it had a plural emphasis. My interpretation suggest that it speaks of two separate hardships or two seperate tragedies. (Poassibly two separate deaths.) Ploughed is a British version of plowed.

Here is one that has three meanings.

"When a pine needle falls in the forest, the eagle sees it; the deer hears it, and the bear smells it."
--an old First Nations saying

(The eagle has the keenest sense of sight
The deer has the keenest sense of hearing
The bear has the keenest sense of smell.)
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Two meanings?

There are only two things that smell like fish and one of them is fish. (?)


I only drink on two occasions; when I am alone and when I am with someone. (?) W. C. Fields ?


There are two tragedies in life. One is to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.

--Benard Shaw,
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Here are a couple of original ones.

Fibbing is to fishing as sipping is to drinking.

(fishing and lying are as synonmous as sipping and drinking)

Friends who like to fish are fish that tend to bite
But friends who will not fish are as fish that never strike.

(Friends who like to fish are people who are fun to be with.
Friends who will not fish are no more fun than a fish that will not bite.)

Phantom Delta