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Elizabeth Oakes Smith Quotes

1806–1893 United States

Elizabeth Oakes Smith (née Prince; August 12, 1806 – November 16, 1893) was an American poet, fiction writer, editor, lecturer, and women's rights activist whose career spanned six decades, from the 1830s to the 1880s.

United States
19th-century poets
Activists
Authors
Editors

Random Elizabeth Oakes Smith quote

11 quotes

The tender violet bent in smiles
To elves that sported nigh,
Tossing the drops of fragrant dew
To scent the evening sky.

The measure of capacity is the measure of sphere for either man or woman.

How few women have any history after the age of thirty!

Yes, this is Life; and everywhere we meet,
Not victor crowns, but wailings of defeat.

White-winged angels meet the child
On the vestibule of life,
And they offer to his lips
All that cup of mingled strife.

'Tis the summer prime, when the noiseless air
In perfumed chalice lies,
And the bee goes by with a lazy hum
Beneath the sleeping skies.

Beware of doubt—faith is the subtle chain,
Which binds us to the infinite; the voice
Of a deep life within, that will remain
Until we crowd it thence.

Faith is the subtle chain,
Which binds us to the Infinite: the voice
Of a deep life within, that will remain
Until we crowd it thence.

How beautiful the water is!
To me 'tis wondrous fair—
No spot can ever lonely be
If water sparkle there—
It hath a thousand tongues of mirth,
Of grandeur, or delight;
And every heart is gladder made
When water greets the sight.

'Tis rushing now adown the spout
And gushing out below,
Half frantic in its joyousness,
And wild in eager flow.
The earth is dried and parch’d with heat,
And it hath longed to be
Released from out the selfish cloud,
To cool the thirsty tree.

Light household duties evermore inwrought
With placid fancies of one trusting heart
That lives but in her smile, and turns
From Life's cold seeming, and the busy mart,
With tenderness, that ever homeward yearns
To be refreshed where one pure altar burns.
Shut out from hence, the mockery of life—
Thus liveth she content, the meek, fond, trusting wife.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Elizabeth Oakes Smith (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.