1909 Quotes

“Ritzonia" was the epithet coined by Bernard Bernson, who sold Italian pictures to American millionaires, to describe the unreal, mortifying sameness of their luxury. "Ritzonia," he wrote in 1909, "carries its inmates like a wishing carpet from place to place, the same people, the same meals, the same music. Within its walls you might be at Peking or Prague or Paris or London and you would never know where.”

“We are the hollow menWe are the stuffed menLeaning togetherHeadpiece filled with straw. Alas!Our dried voices, whenWe whisper togetherAre quiet and meaninglessAs wind in dry grassOr rats' feet over broken glassIn our dry cellarShape without form, shade without colour,Paralysed force, gesture without motion;”

“Time and the bell have buried the day,The black cloud carries the sun away.Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematisStray down, bend to us; tendril and sprayClutch and cling? ChillFingers of yew be curledDown on us? After the kingfisher's wingHas answered light to light, and is silent, the light is stillAt the still point of the turning world.”

“music heard so deeplyThat it is not heard at all, butyou are the musicWhile the music lasts.”

“Under the penitential gatesSustained by staring SeraphimWhere the souls of the devoutBurn invisible and dim.”

“Honest criticism and sensible appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.”

“[I]n America, wrongs can be righted,warriors can wear skirts and blouses,and the bravest heartsmay beat in girlsonly five feet tall.”

“Verily, I say unto thee, many are the adepts that have looked upon the back parts of my father, and cried, "our eyes fail before the glory of thy countenance.”

“Must not understanding lie open unto wisdom as the pyramids lie open to the stars? (6:2)”