Nathalia Crane Quotes

• You cannot choose your battlefield,
  The Gods do that for you;
  But you can plant a standard
  Where a standard never flew.

  Nathalia Crane

  Business, Society, Doe

  "The Singing Crow And Other Poems" by Nathalia Crane, ("The Colors"), 1926.

  47 Copy quote

• In the darkness, who would answer for the color of a rose, Or the vestments of the May moth and the pilgrimage it goes?

  Nathalia Crane

  Color, Rose, Darkness

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  12 Copy quote

• Let go the lure
  The striving to unmake;
  Behold the truth
  Whenever heart may ache
  There is a glory
  In a great mistake.

  Nathalia Crane

  Letting Go, Mistake, Heart

  "Swear By the Night and Other Poems" by Nathalia Crane, ("Imperfection"), 1936.

  7 Copy quote

• The rose has told
  In one simplicity
  That never life
  Relinquishes a bloom
  But to bestow
  An ancient confidence.

  Nathalia Crane

  Rose, Simplicity, Ancient

  "Venus Invisible and Other Poems" by Nathalia Crane, ("Tadmore"), 1928.

  7 Copy quote

• The sign work of the Orient it runneth up and down; The Talmud stalks from right to left, a rabbi in a gown; The Roman rolls from left to right from Maytime unto May; But the gods shake up their symbols in an absent-minded way. Their language runs to circles like the language of the eyes, Emphasised by strange dilations with little panting sighs.

  Nathalia Crane

  Running, Eye, Circles

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  8 Copy quote

• There is a glory in a great mistake.

  Nathalia Crane

  Mistake, Glory, Great Mistakes

  "Swear By the Night and Other Poems" by Nathalia Crane, ("Imperfection"), 1936.

  7 Copy quote

• Oh I'm in love with the janitor's boy, And the janitor's boy loves me; He's going to hunt for a desert isle In our geography.

  Nathalia Crane

  Boys, Desert, Geography

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  5 Copy quote

• I linger on the flathouse roof, the moonlight is divine. But my heart is all aflutter like the washing on the line.

  Nathalia Crane

  Heart, Lines, Moonlight

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  4 Copy quote

• Said the tiger to the lily, Said the viper to the rose, Let us marry so our children May attain the double pose. With a feline half a flower With the attar in the asp We could institute a slaughter That would make a planet gasp.

  Nathalia Crane

  Children, Flower, Rose

  Nathalia Crane (1928). “Venus Invisible: And Other Poems”

  8 Copy quote

• Across the downs a hummingbird Came dipping through the bowers, He pivoted on emptiness To scrutinize the flowers.

  Nathalia Crane

  Flower, Emptiness, Scrutinize

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “Lava Lane, and Other Poems”

  45 Copy quote

• Great is the rose
  Infected by the tomb,
  Yet burgeoning
  Indifferent to death.

  Nathalia Crane

  Rose, Indifferent, Tombs

  "Venus Invisible and Other Poems" by Nathalia Crane, ("Tadmore"), 1928.

  4 Copy quote

• The sun shall shine in ages yet to be, The musing moon illumine pastures dim, And afterwards a new nativity For all who slept the dreamless interim.

  Nathalia Crane

  Moon, Shining, Age

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  7 Copy quote

• The starry brocade of the summer night Is linked to us as part of our estate; And every bee that wings its sidelong flight Assurance of a sweeter, fairer fate.

  Nathalia Crane

  Summer, Fate, Night

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  7 Copy quote

• Great is the rose
  That challenges the crypt,
  And quotes milleniums
  Against the grave.

  Nathalia Crane

  Rose, Challenges, Graves

  "Venus Invisible and Other Poems" by Nathalia Crane, ("Tadmore"), 1928.

  4 Copy quote

• The very serpents bite their tails; the bees forget to sting, For a language so celestial setteth up a wondering. And the touch of absent mindedness is more than any line, Since direction counts for nothing when the gods set up a sign.

  Nathalia Crane

  Tails, Lines, Bees

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  8 Copy quote

• Lo and behold! God made this
  starry wold,
  The maggot and the mold; lo and
  behold!
  He taught the grass contentment
  blade by blade,
  The sanctity of sameness in a shade.

  Nathalia Crane

  Contentment, Shade, Taught

  "Markham v. Prodigy". TIME magazine, November 23, 1925.

  56 Copy quote

• The world is growing gentle, But few know what she owes To the understanding lily And the judgment of the rose.

  Nathalia Crane

  Rose, Understanding, World

  Nathalia Crane (1928). “Venus Invisible: And Other Poems”

  4 Copy quote

• When you return, the youngest of the seers, Released from fetters of ancestral pose, There will be beauty waiting down the years Revisions of the ruby and the rose.

  Nathalia Crane

  Years, Rose, Waiting

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  4 Copy quote

• A precious place is Paradise and none may know its worth, But Eden ever longeth for the knicknacks of the earth. The angels grow quite wistful over worldly things below; They hear the hurdy-gurdies in the Candle Makers Row. They listen for the laughter from the antics of the earth; They lower pails from heaven's walls to catch the milk-maids mirth.

  Nathalia Crane

  Laughter, Wall, Angel

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  4 Copy quote

• Once a pallid Vestal Doubted truth in blue; Listed red in ruin, Harried every hue; Barricaded vision, Garbed herself in sighs; Ridiculed the birthmarks Of the butterflies.

  Nathalia Crane

  Butterfly, Blue, Vision

  Nathalia Crane (1925). “The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems”

  12 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Daisy Ashford

Louis Untermeyer

Hilda Conkling

Rachel Field

Alice Dunbar Nelson

Vivien Greene

Mary Gardiner Brainard

Opal Whiteley