Edgar Lee Masters Quotes (197 Quotes)

And now from the battlements of time, behold:
Thrice thirty million souls being bound together
In the love of larger truth,
Rapt in the expectation of the birth
Of a new Beauty,
Sprung from Brotherhood and Wisdom.

And the silence of Napoleon
After Waterloo.

In age I knew the mountains
But my weary wings could not follow my vision --
Genius is wisdom and youth.

Those who knew me smile
As they read this empty rhetoric.

I would have been as great as George Eliot
But for an untoward fate.

And the old soldier is struck with silence,
Or his mind flies away
Because he cannot concentrate it on Gettysburg.

I lost my case and lost my place.

We were ready then to walk together
And sing in chorus and chant the dawn
Of life that is wholly life.

My secret: Under a mound that you shall never find.

Daily I search the realms of Hades
For the soul of the hawk,
That I may offer him the friendship
Of one whom life wounded and caged.

The idea danced before us as a flag;
The sound of martial music;
The thrill of carrying a gun;
Advancement in the world on coming home;
A glint of glory, wrath for foes;
A dream of duty to country or to God.

And long after other eyes can see
You have woven a moon-white strip of cloth,
You laugh in your strength, for Hope overlays it
With shapes of love and beauty.

And the silence of Jeanne d'Arc
Saying amid the flames, "Blessed Jesus" --
Revealing in two words all sorrows, all hope.

There is the silence of defeat.

Very well, Thomas Rhodes,
You are cock of the walk, no doubt.

Oh many times did Ernest Hyde and I
Argue about the freedom of the will.

But two of the children thought he was right,
And two of the children thought I was right.

There is a quiet in my heart
Like on who rests from days of pain.

But not content,
Wishing to own two thousand acres,
I bustled through the years with axe and plow,
Toiling, denying myself, my wife, my sons, my daughters.

The secret of man, -- the sower.

Here I confess to a lofty scorn,
And an acrid skepticism.

My favorite metaphor was Prickett's cow
Roped out to grass, and free you know as far
As the length of the rope.

All your sorrow, Louise, and hatred of me
Sprang from your delusion that it was wantonness
Of spirit and contempt of your soul's rights
Which made me turn to Annabelle and forsake you.

And when Adam outwitted God by eating the apple
And saw through the lie,
God drove him out of Eden to keep him from taking
The fruit of immortal life.

Sweet it was to see the crowds about the lawns on the day of my funeral,
And hear them murmur their love and sorrow.

But a man can never avenge himself
On the monstrous ogre Life.

And whether you ever took it or not,
My boy, wherever you are,
Work for your soul's sake,
That all the clay of you, all of the dross of you,
May yield to the fire of you,
Till the fire is nothing but light!

Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie, and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?

Thereby also living the life of a sneak-thief,
Poisoned with the anonymous words
Of your clandestine soul.

Why, a moral truth is a hollow tooth
Which must be propped with gold.

She was a hunk of sculptor's clay,
My secret thoughts were fingers:
They flew behind her pensive brow
And lined it deep with pain.

I who kept the greenhouse,
Lover of trees and flowers,
Oft in life saw this umbrageous elm,
Measuring its generous branches with my eye,
And listened to its rejoicing leaves
Lovingly patting each other
With sweet aeolian whispers.

Their spirits looked upon my torture;
They drank it as it were the water of life;
With reddened cheeks, brightened eyes,
The rising flame of my soul made their spirits gilt,
Like the wings of a butterfly drifting suddenly into sunlight.

Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions,
And the beneficient face of a nation
Shining with justice and truth.

But a promise is a promise
And marriage is marriage,
And out of respect for my own character
I refused to be drawn into a divorce
By the scheme of a husband who had merely grown tired
Of his marital vow and duty.

Then that woman, whom the men
Styled Cleopatra, came along.

You faced life as it is,
And as it changes.

She took my strength by the minutes,
She took my life by hours,
She drained me like a fevered moon
That saps the spinning world.

And I chiseled for them whatever they wished,
All in ignorance of its truth.

For this is the birth of the soul in sorrow,
A birth with gains and losses.

Degenerate sons and daughters,
Life is too strong for you--
It takes life to love Life.

While I lived I could not cope with slanderous tongues,
Now that I am dead I must submit to an epitaph
Graven by a fool!

I went up and down the streets
Here and there by day and night,
Through all hours of the night caring for the poor who were sick.

I went to the city for themes and to enrich my art;
There married the banker's daughter,
And later became president of the bank-
Always looking forward to some leisure
To write an epic novel of the war.

I have not lacked in strength,
Nor will, nor courage.

My offense was this:
I said God lied to Adam, and destined him
to lead the life of a fool,
Ignorant that there is evil in the world as well as good.

And when I found it they turned me away,
Hiding their smiles.