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How had I come to be here
like them, and overhear
a cry of pain that could have
got loud and worse but hadn’t?

— Elizabeth Bishop Geography III (1976)

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More quotes by Elizabeth Bishop

The armored cars of dreams contrived to let us do
so many a dangerous thing.

North & South (1946)

From a magician's midnight sleeve
the radio-singers
distribute all their love-songs
over the dew-wet lawns.

North & South (1946)

Should we have stayed at home,
wherever that may be?

Questions of Travel (1965)

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

Questions of Travel (1965)

The ancient owls' nest must have burned.
Hastily, all alone,
a glistening armadillo left the scene,
rose-flecked, head down, tail down.

Questions of Travel (1965)

All Elizabeth Bishop quotes →

Attribution

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