There are two kinds of weakness, that which breaks and that which bends. James Russell Lowell More Quotes by James Russell Lowell More Quotes From James Russell Lowell Sentiment is intellectualized emotion; emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy. James Russell Lowell crystals fancy emotion The victory's in believing. James Russell Lowell victory belief believe And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light. James Russell Lowell light choices forever Did man e'er live Saw priest or woman yet forgive? James Russell Lowell forgiveness forgiving men A poet must need be before his own age, to be even with posterity James Russell Lowell poet age needs To genius life never grows commonplace. James Russell Lowell commonplace grows genius Silence is sorrow's best food. James Russell Lowell best-food silence sorrow The pale and quiet moon Makes her calm forehead bare, And the last fragments of the storm, Like shattered rigging from a fight at sea, Silent and few, are drifting over me. James Russell Lowell fighting moon sea Again, now, now, again Plashes the rain in heavy gouts, The crinkled lightning Seems ever brightening... And loud and long Again the thunder shouts His battle-song, - One quivering flash, One wildering crash, Followed by silence dead and dull, As if the cloud, let go, Leapt bodily below To whelm the earth in one mad overthrow, And then a total lull. James Russell Lowell rain letting-go song Hush! Still as death, The tempest holds his breath As from a sudden will; The rain stops short, but from the eaves You see it drop, and hear it from the leaves, All is so bodingly still. James Russell Lowell tempest rain weather My soul is not a palace of the past. James Russell Lowell palaces soul past [B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own. James Russell Lowell lasts literature should The time is ripe, and rotten-ripe, for change; Then let it come: I have no dread of what Is called for by the instinct of mankind. Nor think I that God's world would fall apart Because we tear a parchment more or less. Truth is eternal, but her effluence, With endless change, is fitted to the hour; Her mirror is turned forward, to reflect The promise of the future, not the past. I do not fear to follow out the truth. James Russell Lowell past fall thinking Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, We are happy now because God so wills it; No matter how barren the past may have been, 'T is enough for us now that the leaves are green; We sit in the warm shade and feel right well How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell... The breeze comes whispering in our ear, That dandelions are blossoming near... Every thing is upward striving; 'T is as easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue, - 'T is the natural way of living. James Russell Lowell summer heart past In the storm, like a prophet o'ermaddened, Thou singest and tossest thy branches; Thy heart with the terror is gladdened, Thou forebodest the dread avalanches.... In the calm thou o'erstretchest the valleys With thine arms, as if blessings imploring, Like an old king led forth from his palace, When his people to battle are pouring. James Russell Lowell kings blessing heart For men in earnest have no time to waste In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth. James Russell Lowell naked truth men Suddenly all the sky is hid As with the shutting of a lid, One by one great drops are falling Doubtful and slow, Down the pane they are crookedly crawling, And the wind breathes low; Slowly the circles widen on the river, Widen and mingle, one and all; Here and there the slenderer flowers shiver, Struck by an icy rain-drop’s fall. James Russell Lowell flower rain fall Now on the hills I hear the thunder mutter... Nearer and nearer rolls the thunder-clap, - You can hear the quick heart of the tempest beat.... Look! look! that livid flash! And instantly follows the rattling thunder, As if some cloud-crag, split asunder, Fell, splintering with a ruinous crash, On the Earth, which crouches in silence under; And now a solid gray wall of rain Shuts off the landscape, mile by mile. James Russell Lowell wall rain heart Against the windows the storm comes dashing, Through tattered foliage the hail tears crashing, The blue lightning flashes, The rapid hail clashes... The thunder is rumbling And crashing and crumbling. James Russell Lowell tears blue weather Men! whose boast it is that ye Come of fathers brave and free, If there breathe on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave? James Russell Lowell brave men father
