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Though earth be but an outpost of delight,
Heaven"s wild frontier by tragedy beset,
Only a Shakespeare may her gifts requite.
Only a happy Raphael pay his debt.

— Katharine Lee Bates The Debt (1923)

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More quotes by Katharine Lee Bates

Here is princely interchange
Of the gifts of shore and field,
Starred with treasures rare and strange
That the liberal sea-chests yield.

America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

Never was there lovelier town
Than our Falmouth by the sea.
Tender curves of sky look down
On her grace of knoll and lea.

America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

I am thy strong consoler when the desolate human pain
Darkens upon thee, the azure outblotted by rush of the rain.
All thou dost cherish may perish; still shall thy quest remain.

America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

I am the drawn sword barring the lanes thy mutinous feet
Vainly covet for greenness. Loitering pace or fleet,
Thine is the crag-path chosen. On the crest shall rest be sweet.

America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

By the promise of noon"s blue splendor in the dawn"s first silvery gleam,
By the song of the sea that compelleth the path of the rockcleaving stream,
I summon thee, recreant dreamer, to rise and follow thy dream.

America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

All Katharine Lee Bates quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Katharine Lee Bates (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.