Editor's Corner

Good morning, little chickadees.

Today’s love-related idiom (or more accurately, phrase) is “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Unlike many idioms I look into, this phrase appears throughout history, with varied wording from different sources. The first article that I looked at said that Plato used this phrase in ancient Greece, but then the article didn’t pinpoint the use. Essentially it means what it says: the longer you are away from someone that you love, the stronger your love becomes.

Here is some information that I found in Your Dictionary.

Some research states the phrase was first published in 1602 as the first line of an anonymous poem in Francis Davison’s anthology Poetical Rhapsody, although this has been disputed.

Similar sentiments, if not the actual phrasing, were found in Thomas Overbuy’s work Characters published in 1616—“Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it”—and James Howell’s Familiar Letters in 1650: "Distance sometimes endears friendship, and absence sweetens it.” This tends to happen with the creation of poetry, storytelling, and lyrics. Since the human experience is a shared one, it’s only natural that our expressions of emotion will overlap with one another.

However, many believe that it was Thomas Haynes Bayly who brought the notion to life in his poem titled Isle of Beauty which appeared in his two-volume work Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems in 1844. He wrote:

"What would not I give to wander
Where my old companions dwell?
Absence makes the heart grow fonder;
Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!"

Later on, people started making fun of the idea, starting in the 1930s with the song titled “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (for Somebody Else). The song has been covered by many people through the years.

Modern magazines have also written about the difficulty of “long-distance” relationships. The little bit of romance in me chooses to focus on Bayly’s poem.

Have a sweet day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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