Elinor Wylie

“And I am bored to a point of tears with everlastings, and stickiness, and sameness, and everything.”

“You are the bird, and I the shabby snare That waits for you in vain.”

“Let us walk in the white snow in a soundless space; With footsteps quiet and slow, at a tranquil pace, Under veils of white lace.”

“I was, being human, born alone; I am, being woman, hard beset; I live by squeezing from a stone The little nourishment I get.”

“Life, mislabeled poisonous, swims in my veins and saturates my flesh.”

“Avoid the reeking herd, Shun the polluted flock, Live like that stoic bird, The eagle of the rock.”

“A Puritan may go to his brown-bread crust with as gross an appetite as a sinner to his dainties.”

“Now let no charitable hope Confuse my mind with images Of eagle and of antelope: I am in nature none of these.”

“Down to the Puritan marrow of my bones There's something in this richness that I hate. I love the look, austere, immaculate, Of landscapes drawn in pearly monotones.”

“I'd rather have a kitten than a car.”

“I love my life, but not too well to give it.”

“A pretty woman's worth some pains to see.”

“In coldest crucibles of pain Her shrinking spirit melts again.”

“He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.”