52 quotes
The fiery funeral of foliage old.
Poems (1897)
Thy face remembered is from other worlds,
It has been died for, though I know not when.
It has been sung of, though I know not where.
Poems (1897)
When did a lover heed a mother's woe?
Ulysses (1902)
Think you the old would die?
At any cost they would prolong the light.
'Tis we, in whose pure blood the fever takes,
Newly innoculate with violent life,
'Tis we who are so mad to die.
Paolo and Francesca (1900)
And though with sadder, still with kinder eyes,
We shall behold all frailties, we shall haste
To pardon, and with mellowing minds to bless.
Poems (1897)
Alas! I am a woman utterly!
Ulysses (1902)
I tell you we are fooled by the eye, the ear,
These organs muffle us from that real world
That lies about us, we are duped by brightness.
The ear, the eye doth make us deaf and blind;
Else should we be aware of all our dead,
Who pass above us, through us and beneath us.
Herod (1901)
... she who sits enthroned may not prolong
The luxury of tears; nor may she waste.
In lasting widowhood a people's hopes,
So hard is height, so cruel is a crown.
Ulysses (1902)
What if the powers permit
The doing of that deed which serves us now;
Then of that very deed do make a spur
To drive us to some act that we abhor?
The first step is with us; then all the road
The long road is with Fate.
Herod (1901)
... who shall set a shore to love?
When hath it ever swerved from death, or when
Hath it not burned away all barriers,
Even dearest ties of mother and of son,
Even of brothers?
Paolo and Francesca (1900)
... when we women sin, 'tis not
By art; it is not easy, it is not light;
It is our agony shot through with bliss:
We sway and rock and suffer ere we fall.
Paolo and Francesca (1900)
... how shall I know
That I myself may not, by sorrow taught,
Accept the perfect stillness of the ground?
Poems (1897)