Poetry
Quotes - If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate
“Falling
in love is very real, but I used to shake my head when people talked about soul
mates, poor deluded individuals grasping at some supernatural ideal not
intended for mortals but sounded pretty in a poetry book. Then, we met, and
everything changed, the cynic has become the converted, the sceptic, an ardent
zealot.”
―
E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
“I
must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and
compare: my business is to create.”
―
William Blake, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
“You
will always be the bread and the knife, not to mention the crystal goblet
and—somehow—the wine.”
―
Billy Collins
“the
saddest thing is to be
a
minute to someone,
when
you've made them your eternity.”
―
Sanober Khan
“There
are things known
and
there are things unknown
and
in between are the doors.”
―
Jim Morrison, Letters from Joe
“O
serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did
ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful
tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd
raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised
substance of divinest show!
Just
opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A
damned saint, an honourable villain!
O
nature, what hadst thou to do in hell;
When
thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In
mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was
ever book containing such vile matter
So
fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In
such a gorgeous palace!”
―
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I
wandered lonely as a cloud
That
floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When
all at once I saw a crowd,
A
host, of golden daffodils;
Beside
the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering
and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous
as the stars that shine
And
twinkle on the milky way,
They
stretched in never-ending line
Along
the margin of a bay:
Ten
thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing
their heads in sprightly dance.
The
waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did
the sparkling waves in glee:
A
poet could not but be gay,
In
such a jocund company:
I
gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What
wealth the show to me had brought:
For
oft, when on my couch I lie
In
vacant or in pensive mood,
They
flash upon that inward eye
Which
is the bliss of solitude;
And
then my heart with pleasure fills,
And
dances with the daffodils.”
―
William Wordsworth, I Wander'd Lonely as a Cloud
“It
is strange how often a heart must be broken
Before
the years can make it wise.”
―
Sara Teasdale, The Collected Poems
“How
should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of
all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into
princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only
waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in
its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.
So
you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you
have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your
hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you,
that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let
you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any
miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these
conditions are doing inside you.”
―
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
“i
carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)”
―
E.E. Cummings, Selected Poems
“I
am stuffing your mouth with your
promises
and watching
you
vomit them out upon my face.”
―
Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems
“The
bridge will only take you halfway there, to those mysterious lands you long to
see. Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fair, and moonlit woods where
unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and share the twisting
trails and wondrous worlds I've known. But this bridge will only take you
halfway there. The last few steps you have to take alone.”
―
Shel Silverstein
“How
happy is the little stone
That
rambles in the road alone,
And
doesn't care about careers,
And
exigencies never fears;
Whose
coat of elemental brown
A
passing universe put on;
And
independent as the sun,
Associates
or glows alone,
Fulfilling
absolute decree
In
casual simplicity.”
―
Emily Dickinson
“If
you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There
are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and
not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some
possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could
be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins.
Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its
plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. (Don't Hesitate)”
―
Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
“I
wanted all things
To
seem to make some sense,
So
we could all be happy, yes,
Instead
of tense.
And
I made up lies
So
that they all fit nice,
And
I made this sad world
A
par-a-dise.”
―
Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
“I?
I
walk alone;
The
midnight street
Spins
itself from under my feet;
My
eyes shut
These
dreaming houses all snuff out;
Through
a whim of mine
Over
gables the moon's celestial onion
Hangs
high.”
―
Sylvia Plath
“Be
still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind
the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy
fate is the common fate of all,
Into
each life some rain must fall”
―
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ballads and Other Poems
“Of
two sisters
one
is always the watcher,
one
the dancer.”
―
Louise Glück, Descending Figure
