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Edith Sitwell Quotes

1887–1964 England

Edith Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was an English poet and critic.

England
Authors
Critics
Poets

Also known as: Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell, Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa, Sitwell, Edith

Random Edith Sitwell quote

48 quotes

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

The Last Years of a Rebel (1967)

My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life.

Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.

Taken Care Of (1965)

People are usually made Dames for virtues I do not possess.

The Last Years of a Rebel (1967)

Mother or Murderer, you have
given or taken life —
Now all is one!

The Canticle of the Rose (1949)

Still falls the Rain —
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss —
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.

Street Songs (1942)

The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.

Taken Care Of (1965)

The flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind
Is but a foolish wind.

Green Song & Other Poems (1944)

The poet is a brother speaking to a brother of "a moment of their other lives" — a moment that had been buried beneath the dust of the busy world.

The Poet's Vision (1959)

I wouldn't dream of following a fashion... how could one be a different person every three months?

The Last Years of a Rebel (1967)

I enjoyed talking to her, but thought nothing of her writing. I considered her "a beautiful little knitter".

Daisy and Lily,
Lazy and silly,
Walk by the shore of the wan grassy sea,—
Talking once more 'neath a swan-bosomed tree.

Jane, Jane,
Tall as a crane,
The morning light creaks down again!

Remember only this of our hopeless love
That never till Time is done
Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.

Green Song & Other Poems (1944)

Good taste is the worst vice ever invented.

The Last Years of a Rebel (1967)

The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves.

The Last Years of a Rebel (1967)

As for the usefulness of poetry, its uses are many. It is the deification of reality. It should make our days holy to us. The poet should speak to all men, for a moment, of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.

Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us.

Street Songs (1942)

The living blind and seeing Dead together lie
As if in love... There was no more hating then,
And no more love; Gone is the heart of Man.

The Canticle of the Rose (1949)

Lovely Semiramis
Closes her slanting eyes:
Dead is she long ago.

The Wooden Pegasus (1920)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edith Sitwell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.