Edgar Lee Masters Quotes

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me — A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire — It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick, Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics, While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines.

It takes life to love life.

Remember the acorn;
It does not devour other acorns.

I loro spiriti battevano sul mio
come le ali di mille farfalle.
Chiudevo gli occhi e avvertivo i loro spiriti vibrare.
Chiudevo gli occhi, pure sapevo quando le loro ciglia
frangiavano dagli occhi abbassati le gote,
e quando giravano la testa:
e quando gli abiti aderivano a loro,
o ricadevano in squisiti drappeggi.
I loro spiriti osservano la mia estasi
con sguardi ampi di stellare indifferenza.
I loro spiriti guardavano la mia tortura;
la bevevano come fosse l'acqua della vita;
con le gote arrossate, gli occhi illuminati
la fiamma ascendente della mia anima indorava i loro spiriti,
come le ali di una farfalla che all'improvviso varca la luce del sole.
E invocavano da me la vita, vita, vita.
Ma prendendo la vita per me stesso,
afferrando e schiacciando le loro anime,
come un bambino schiaccia l'uva e beve
dalle sue palme il succo purpureo,
venni in questo vuoto senz'ali,
dove né rosso, né oro, né il vino,
né il ritmo della vita sono noti.

I bought every kind of machine that's known-
Grinders, shellers, planters, mowers,
Mills and rakes and ploughs and threshers-
And all of them stood in the rain and sun,
Getting rusted, warped and battered,
For I had no sheds to store them in,
And no use for most of them.
And toward the last, when I thought it over,
There by my window, growing clearer
About myself, as my pulse slowed down,
And looked at one of the mills I bought-
Which I didn't have the slightest need of,
As things turned out, and I never ran-
A fine machine, once brightly varnished,
And eager to do its work,
Now with its paint washed off-
I saw myself as a good machine
That Life had never used.

Alfred Moir

[...] Ma invece mi elevai un poco nella vita,
e lo devo a un libro che lessi.
Ma perché andai a Mason City
Dove mi accadde di vedere il libro in vetrina,
con la copertina sgargiante che mi allettò l’occhio?
E perché la mia anima rispose al libro
Via via che lo leggevo?

Maurice, weep not, I am not here under this pine tree.
The balmy air of spring whispers through the sweet grass,
The stars sparkle, the whippoorwill calls,
But thou grievest, while my soul lies rapturous
In the blest Nirvana of eternal light!
Go to the good heart that is my husband,
Who broods upon what he calls our guilty love–
Tell him that my love for you, no less than my love for him
Wrought out my destiny–that through the flesh
I won spirit, and through spirit, peace.
There is no marriage in heaven,
But there is love.

To this generation I would say:
Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.

Минерва Джоунс

Минерва, селската поетеса съм аз,
осмивана, подигравана от местните дебелаци
заради тежко тяло, кривогледи очи и тромав вървеж,
особено когато Уелди Касапчето ме хвана накрая
след бясна гонитба.
Изоставена със злочестината си в ръцете на д-р Мейърс,
бавно затъвах в смъртта, плъзнала нагоре
по скованите ми нозе,
като човек, който нагазва все по-дълбоко
в леден поток.
Ще порови ли някой в селския вестник,
ще събера ли в книга стиховете, които съм отпечатала?
Бях толкова жадна за обич!
И на живот - ненаситна!

What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,
Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?
Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you — It takes life to love Life.

And when you are poor and have to carry
The Christian creed and wife and children
All on your back, it is too much!
That's why I made the Elixir of Youth,
Which landed me in the jail at Peoria
Branded a swindler and a crook
By the upright Federal Judge!

William and Emily

There is something about Death
Like love itself!
If with some one with whom you have known passion,
And the glow of youthful love,
You also, after years of life,
Together, feel the sinking of the fire,
And thus fade away together,
Gradually, faintly, delicately,
As it were in each other's arms,
Passing from the familiar room -
That is a power of unison between souls
Like love itself!

Now I, an under-tenant of the earth, can see
That the branches of a tree
Spread no wider than its roots.
And how shall the soul of a man
Be larger than the life he has lived?

The truth was this: I did not have the brains.