“If I were to smile,”
She unto me began, “thou wouldst become
Like Semele, when she was turned to ashes.
Because my beauty, that along the stairs
Of the eternal palace more enkindles,
As thou hast seen, the farther we ascend,
If it were tempered not, is so resplendent
That all thy mortal power in its effulgence
Would seem a leaflet that the thunder crushes.”

-Dante, The Divine Comedy

Not that they die, but that they
die like sheep.

-Vachel Lindsay, The Leaden-Eyed

Why so pale and wan, fond lover,
Prythee, why so pale?
Will, if looking well can’t move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prythee, why so pale?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Prythee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can’t win her,
Saying nothing do’t?
Prythee, why so mute?

Sir John Suckling

… Whatever happens, a child born tomorrow will be the same as a child born two thousand years ago.

-Michael Leunig, Ramming the Shears

Legg diene warme Hand
up mien Hert.

-Erna Taege-Röhnisch

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.

-Alexander Pope

Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.

-T. S. Eliot

Come sit down beside me
I said to myself,
And although it doesn’t make sense,
I held my own hand
As a small sign of trust
And together I sat on the fence.

-Michael Leunig