Nature and Elements
Geoffrey Chaucer
Now welcome, somer, with thy sonne softe, That hast this wintres wedres overshake.
Wang Wei
Empty hills, no one in sight, only the sound of someone talking; late sunlight enters the deep wood, shining over the green moss again. 1
Wang Wei
Empty hills, no one in sight, only the sound of someone talking; late sunlight enters the deep wood, shining over the green moss again. 1
Teócrito
The frog’s life is most jolly, my lads; he has no care Who shall fill up his cup; for he has drink enough to spare.
Teócrito
Cicala to cicala is dear, and ant to ant, And kestrels dear to kestrels, but to me the Muse and song.
Aristófanes
[On the nightingale:] Lord Zeus, listen to the little bird’s voice; he has filled the whole thicket with honeyed song.
Aristófanes
Haven’t you sometimes seen a cloud that looked like a centaur? Or a leopard perhaps? Or a wolf? Or a bull? 2
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.
Sylvia Plath
Today is the first of August. It is hot, steamy and wet. It is raining. I am tempted to write a poem. But I remember what it said on one rejection slip: After a heavy rainfall, poems titled “Rain” pour in from across the nation.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A poet ought not to pick nature’s pocket: let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to your imagination than to your memory.
Plutarco
We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.
