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Aline Murray Kilmer Quotes

1888–1941 United States

Aline Murray Kilmer (August 1, 1888 – October 1, 1941), was an American poet, children's book author, and essayist, and the wife and widow of poet and journalist Joyce Kilmer.

United States
20th-century poets
Authors
Essayists

Random Aline Murray Kilmer quote

12 quotes

Deborah danced, when she was two,
As buttercups and daffodils do;
Spirited, frail, naïvely bold,
Her hair a ruffled crest of gold.

For life seems only a shuddering breath,
A smothered, desperate cry,
And things have a terrible permanence
When people die.

When people inquire I always just state:
"I have four nice children and hope to have eight."

If I live till my fighting days are done
I must fasten my armour on my eldest son.

I’m sorry you are wiser,
I’m sorry you are taller;
I liked you better foolish,
And I liked you better smaller.

I sing of little loves that glow
Like tapers shining through the rain.
Of little loves that break themselves
Like moths against the window-pane.

St. Brigid, please keep
My babies asleep!

There is a mirror in my room
Less like a mirror than a tomb,
There are so many ghosts that pass
Across the surface of the glass.

My heart shall keep the child I knew,
When you are really gone from me,
And spend its life remembering you
As shells remember the lost sea.

Smilingly, out of my pain,
I have woven a little song;
You may take it away with you.
I shall not sing it again.

Here, Cyprian, is my jeweled looking-glass,
My final gift to bind my final vow:
I cannot see myself as I once was;
I would not see myself as I am now.

I shall not be afraid any more,
Either by night or day;
What would it profit me to be afraid
With you away?
* * *
For there is only sorrow in my heart;
There is no room for fear.
But how I wish I were afraid again,
My dear, my dear!

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Aline Murray Kilmer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.