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Quote by Conrad Aiken

“All that is beautiful, and all that looks on beauty with eyes filled with fire, like a lover's eyes: all of this is yours; you gave it to me, sunlight! all these stars are yours; you gave them to me, skies!”

Quote by Conrad Aiken

Author

Conrad Aiken (August 5, 1889 - August 17, 1973) was an American novelist and poet. Known for his unique literary style and profound exploration of the human psyche, Aiken's works often delve into themes of morality, philosophy, and the human condition. more

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“Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam ... and after a while they will fall to dust and rain; or else we will tear them down with impatient hands; and hew rock out of the earth, and build them again.”

Hands Earth Fall Rocks Tears Rain Dust Towers Impatient Gleam

Book:Collected Poems

Source: Collected Poems

“Oh, I've discarded a great many [poems]. And occasionally I've discarded and then resurrected. I would find a crumpled yellow ball of paper in the wastebasket, in the morning, and open it to see what the hell I'd been up to; and occasionally it was something that needed only a very slight change to be brought off, which I'd missed the day before.”

Morning Hell Needed Paper Balls Great Men Yellow Discarded

Author:Conrad Aiken

“It is precisely the sort of thing I am always trying to do in my writing -- to present my unhappy reader with a wide-ranged chaos -- of actions and reactions, thoughts, memories and feelings -- in the vain hope that at the end he will see that the whole thing represents only one moment, one feeling, one person. A raging, trumpeting jungle of associations, and then I announce at the end of it, with a gesture of despair, "This is I!”

Writing Trying Persons Ends Whole Moments Feelings Action Memories Reader Despair Chaos Wide Rage Unhappy Reactions Vain Association Gestures Jungle Always Trying Action And Reaction

Book:Blue Voyage: A Novel

Source: Blue Voyage: A Novel

“One is least sure of one's self, sometimes, when one is most positive.”

Author:Conrad Aiken

“My heart has become as hard as a city street, the horses trample upon it, it sings like iron, all day long and all night long they beat, they ring like the hooves of time.”

Heart Long Hard Night Cities Streets My Heart Beats Horse Rings Iron All Night City Streets

Book:Collected Poems

Source: Collected Poems

“Whitman had a profound influence on me. That was during my sophomore year when I came down with a bad attack of Whitmanitis. But he did me a lot of good, and I think the influence is discoverable.”

Thinking Years Influence Profound Sophomore Sophomore Year

Author:Conrad Aiken

“The wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams, the eternal asker of answers, stands in the street, and lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain.”

Firsts Dream Answers Streets Cold Eternal Rain Ghost Wander Lifts Dreamer Palms Inquisitive

Book:Collected Poems

Source: Collected Poems

“O sweet clean earth, from whom the green blade cometh! When we are dead, my best beloved and I, close well above us, that we may rest forever, sending up grass and blossoms to the sky.”

Wells May Earth Forever Sky Sweet Green Clean Grass Beloved Blades

Author:Conrad Aiken

“The days, the nights, flow one by one above us. The hours go silently over our lifted faces. We are like dreamers who walk beneath a sea. Beneath high walls we flow in the sun together. We sleep, we wake, we laugh, we pursue, we flee.”

Together Faces Night Hours Sleep Walks Laughing Sun Sea Wall Flow Pursue Dreamer

Book:The House of Dust: A Symphony

Source: The House of Dust: A Symphony

“The wind shrieks, the wind grieves; It dashes the leaves on walls, it whirls then again; And the enormous sleeper vaguely and stupidly dreams And desires to stir, to resist a ghost of pain.”

Dream Pain Desire Wind Wall Ghost Enormous Grieving Sleepers

Book:The House of Dust: A Symphony

Source: The House of Dust: A Symphony