Mass Quotes #16 (Poetry)
I had No Time to Hate by Emily Dickinson
I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.
Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be,
A little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.
Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeash
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
an empty doorway or a maple leaf.
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—
A poem should not mean
But be.
Quiet Girl by Langston Hughes
I would liken you
To a night without stars
Were it not for your eyes.
I would liken you
To a sleep without dreams
Were it not for your songs.
Mass Quotes #11
I watched “Midnight” from Doctor Who and boy did that unnerve me. I’m not scared, but unnerved. That’s the only word I can think of.
And then I read Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti. Now I’m continuing in the vein of strange, somewhat creepy poetry. And I love it.
We must not look at Goblin men
We must not buy their fruit
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?
- Goblin Market, Christina Rosetti
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
- The Hollow Men, T.S. Elliot
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
- The Hollow Men, T.S. Elliot
Life is but life, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!
And if, indeed, I fail,
At least to know the worst is sweet.
Defeat means nothing but defeat,
No drearier can prevail!
-Rouge Gagne, Emily Dickinson
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the achin,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
- Emily Dickinson
Heartbreak; Madame la Fleurie
It was a page he had
Found in the handbook
Of heartbreak.
-Wallace Stevens, “Madame la Fleurie” Collected Poems
The Lord of the Rings (poem)
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky.
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all,
and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
-JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
