Bliss Carman Quotes

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir: We must rise and follow her, When from every hill of flame She calls, and calls each vagabond by name.

THERE is something in the autumn that is native to my blood— Touch of manner, hint of mood; And my heart is like a rhyme, With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

On the shining yards of heaven See a wider dawn unfurled. . . . The eternal slaves of beauty Are the masters of the world.

Love is terribly sincere and great. I suppose that is why so many people are afraid of it, and so few can live up to it. — Bliss Carman to Gladys Baldwin, 1915 (age 52)

Let the red dawn surmise What we shall do, When this blue starlight dies And all is through. If we have loved but well Under the sun, Let the last morrow tell What we have done.

set me a task in witch i can put something of my very self and it is a task no longer,it is joy;it is art.

Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.

Ye who have the sleeping world   In your care, "Guard the linen sweet and cool, 5 Where a lovely golden head With its dreams of mortal bliss   Slumbers now!

A beautiful child is mine, Formed like a golden flower, Cleis the loved one. And above her I value Not all the Lydian land, 5 Nor lovely Hellas.

Many a saying sounds like truth, Until Truth itself is heard.

How to say I love you: What, if I but live it, Were the use in that, love?   Small, indeed.

And there is nothing more in this great world Than thou and I, and the blue dome of dusk.

Love is so strong a thing, The very gods must yield, When it is welded fast With the unflinching truth. Love is so frail a thing, 5 A word, a look, will kill. Oh lovers, have a care How ye do deal with love.

In the meadow ground the frogs With their deafening flutes begin,— The old madness of the world 15 In their golden throats again.

the white-maned horses of the surge, 10 Plunging in thunderous onset to the shore, Trample and break and charge along the sand!

Loving Heart, There must be an end to summer, And the flute be laid aside.

SAPPHO WHO BROKE OFF A FRAGMENT OF HER SOUL FOR US TO GUESS AT.

the soft pleading magic The green wood heard of old.

the gods have given thee Their best gift, an equal mind 5 That can only love, be glad,   And fear not.

In a land that knows not Bitterness nor sorrow, She has found out all 15   Of truth at last.

And not for all our questioning 10 Shall we discover more than joy, Nor find a better thing than love!

XXIII I loved thee, Atthis, in the long ago, When the great oleanders were in flower In the broad herded meadows full of sun.

In the slow ample beauty of the world, And the unutterable glad release 15 Within the temple of the holy night.

XVIII The courtyard of her house is wide And cool and still when day departs. Only the rustle of leaves is there   And running water. And then her mouth, more delicate 5 Than the frail wood-anemone, Brushes my cheek, and deeper grow   The purple shadows.

But more than all sounds, Surer, serener, Fuller with passion And exultation, Let the hushed whisper 40 In thine own heart say, How I adore thee.