Edgar Lee Masters Quotes
1868–1950 United States
Edgar Lee Masters (23 August 1868 – 5 March 1950) was an American poet, biographer and dramatist. He is most famous for the Spoon River Anthology.
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Random Edgar Lee Masters quote
9 quotes
The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.
Beware of the man who rises to power
From one suspender.
The dust's for crawling, heaven's for flying,
Wherefore, O Soul, whose wings are grown,
Soar upward to the sun!
In time you shall see Fate approach you
In the shape of your own image in the mirror;
Or you shall sit alone by your own hearth,
And suddenly the chair by you shall hold a guest,
And you shall know that guest,
And read the authentic message of his eyes.
You may think, passer-by, that Fate
Is a pit-fall outside of yourself,
Around which you may walk by the use of foresight
And wisdom.
I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence for which music alone finds the word.
Blind as I was, I tried to get out
As the carriage fell in the ditch,
And was caught in the wheels and killed.
The soul of the river had entered my soul,
And the gathered power of my soul was moving
So swiftly, it seemed to be at rest
Under cities of cloud and under
Spheres of silver and changing worlds—
Until I saw a flash of trumpets
Above the battlements over Time!
I never started to plow in my life
That some one did not stop in the road
And take me away to a dance or picnic.
I ended up with forty acres;
I ended up with a broken fiddle —
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,
And not a single regret.