Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes

732 Sourced Quotes

I have a summer gift,
A sunny gift for thee :
See this white vase, where blooms
A beautiful rose tree.
And on its crimson leaves
Your heart must moralize,
For love a lesson takes
Of every leaf that dies.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
He enter'd now the garden, and a fall
Of singing, voice and lute, sank on his ear :
At first it seem'd thrice sweet and musical,
But it grew sadder as he came more near.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Oh, the heart
Knows not the power of music till it loves !

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
It is most sad to watch the fall
Of autumn leaves!—but worst of all
It is to watch the flower of spring
Faded in its fresh blossoming!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Who seeing the fair ship
That swept through the bright waves.
Would dream that tyrants trod her deck,
And that her freight was slaves !

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
From Lee, a dramatist:
Ah! the poet hath no true hope, who doth not place it in the many, and in the feeling of the common multitude.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The day is past, and the moonbeams weep
O'er the many that rest in their last cold sleep;
Near to the gashed and the nerveless hand
Is the pointless spear and the broken brand;
The archer lies like an arrow spent,
His shafts all loose and his bow unbent;
Many a white plume torn and red,
Bright curls rent from the graceful head,
Helmet and breast-plate scattered around,
Lie a fearful show on the well-fought ground;
While the crow and the raven flock overhead
To feed on the hearts of the helpless dead,
Save when scared by the glaring eye
Of some wretch in his last death agony.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
But as our explanation will be more brief than one broken in upon by words of wonder, regret, and affection, we will proceed to it ; holding that explanation, like advice, should be of all convenient shortness.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
But wit cuts its bright way through the glass-door of public favour;

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
They see the mortal maiden ride
In honour by the chieftan's side,
So beautiful, so free from sin,
Worthy was she such boon to win :
The spirit race that floated round
Were not more pure, more stainless found

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
I envy thee, thou careless wind !
How light, how wild thy wandering :
Thou hast no earthly chain, to bind
One fetter on thy airy wing.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Weep not for the dead with a fruitless recalling,
Their soul on the wings of the morning hath fled;
Mourn rather for those whom yet life is enthralling,
Ah! weep for the living—weep not for the dead.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Of all the follies that we can commit, the greatest is to hesitate.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
I believe that travelling is as much a passion as love, poetry, or ambition.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Genius doth catch the music of the spheres,
Which mortal ear was never meant to know.
Genius can penetrate the mysteries
Of feeling, all unknown to other hearts;
A power hath entered in the inmost soul,
Whose presence may not be contained.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
To this fine spirit our earth owes her greatest:
For the future is purchased by scorning the present,
And life is redeemed from its clay soil by fame.
* King, not a vestige remains of your palaces;
Conqueror, forgotten the fame of your battles:
But the Poet yet lives in the sweetness of music—
He appeal'd to the heart, that never forgets.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
There is a city, that for slaves
Has kings, and nations, winds, and waves:
St. Mark is conscious of her power,
His winged lion marks her tower.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Hope is love's happiness, but not its life;—
How many hearts have nourished a vain flame
In silence and in secret, though they knew
They fed the scorching fire that would consume them!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
How often will the lip frame some indifferent question, when the heart is full of the most important!

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
And had he not long read
Her heart's hush'd secret in the soft dark eye
Lighted at his approach, and on the cheek
Colouring all crimson at his lightest look?

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
There was a sculptured form; the feet were placed
Upon a finely-carved rose wreath; the arms
Were raised to Heaven, as if to clasp the stars
EULALIA leant beside; 'twas hard to say
Which was the actual marble: when she spoke,
You started, scarce it seem'd a human sound;
But the eyes' lustre told life linger'd still;
And now the moonlight seem'd to fill their depths.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
—the unpunished crime is never regretted. We weep over the consequence, not over the fault.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
But song has touch'd my lips with fire,
And made my heart a shrine;
For what, although alloy'd, debased,
Is in itself divine.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
For wishes are effectual but by will,
And that too much is impotent and void
In frail humanity; and time steals by
Sinful and wavering, and unredeem'd.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Down swept the gathered waters over rocks
Which broke at times the column's foaming line ;
Darkening amid the snow-white froth, it swept
Like an all conquering army, and an arch
Of sparkling hues that in the sunbeams played
Seemed to unite it with the sky which hung
Above all calmness and repose :

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The gallantry of an English peasant rarely expands into words.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
You may smile at the fanciful structures I rear,
And say, that my castles are built but on sand ;
Like bubbles, that on the blue waters appear,
That sparkle, invite, and then sink from the hand.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Yet gazed MANDALLA on the square
As she he sought still glided there,—
Oh that fond look, whose eyeballs' strain,
And will not know its look is vain!
At length he turned,—his silent mood
Sought that impassioned solitude,
The Eden of young hearts, when first
Love in its loneliness is nurst.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
This volume was written for children. Miss Landon set out its purpose in the preface.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon
We make ourselves our own distress,
We are ourselves our happiness.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon