Edgar Lee Masters

“And I never started to plow in my lifeThat some one did not stop in the roadAnd take me away to a dance or picnic. I ended up with forty acres; I ended up with a broken fiddle—And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,And not a single regret.”

“The snows and the roses of yesterday are vanished;And what is love but a rose that fades?”

“the much-sought prize of eternal youthIs just arrested growth.”

“Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick, Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics, While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines.”

“The earth keeps some vibration going There in your heart, and that is you. And if the people find you can fiddle, why fiddle you must, for all your life.”

“The tongue may be an unruly member--But silence poisons the soul.”

“There is no marriage in Heaven, but there is love.”

“Rather a thousand times the county jail than to lie under this marble figure with wings and this granite pedestal bearing the words "pro patria." What do they mean anyway?”

“Henry got me with child,Knowing that I could not bring forth lifeWithout losing my own.In my youth therefore I entered the portals of dust.”

“Viandante,amare è ritrovare la propria animatraverso l'anima dell'amato.Quando l'amato se ne stacca,allora tu l'hai perduta.È scritto: "Ho un amico,ma il mio dolore non ha amici".”

“I have studied many timesThe marble which was chiseled for me—A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.In truth it pictures not my destinationBut my life.For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.And now I know that we must lift the sailAnd catch the winds of destinyWherever they drive the boat.To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,But life without meaning is the tortureOf restlessness and vague desire—It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.”

“I tramped through the countryTo get the feelingThat I was not a separate thing from the earth.I used to lose myselfBy lying with eyes half-open in the woods.Sometimes I talked with animals…”

“In time you shall see Fate approach youIn the shape of your own image in the mirror.”

“To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,But life without meaning is the tortureOf restlessness and vague desire--It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.”

“It takes life to love life.”

“My name used to be in the papers dailyAs having dined somewhere,Or traveled somewhere,Or rented a house in Paris,Where I entertained the nobility.I was forever eating or traveling,Or taking the cure at Baden-Baden.Now I am here to do honorTo Spoon River, here beside the family whence I sprang.No one cares now where I dined,Or lived, or whom I entertained,Or how often I took the cure at Baden-Baden!”

“What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you— It takes life to love Life.”

“To this generation I would say:Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.”