American novelist & poet (1869-1954)
I saw a bird on a bough and wondered if he were dreaming. And then another came; the two sat long together and not a note they sang. The sun went down in the west, and the shadows wrapt their veils around the shivering earth; the moon arose behind the mountains, the full-faced harvest moon that turns all things to magic. The two birds on the bough were dark against the moon's gold face. And still no note they sang—their silence thrilled the world. And I forgot the meadows and the hills, the trees and the golden harvest; for I knew that those two dreaming birds were the heart of a miracle.
ELSA BARKER
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Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Bear this in mind: I merely tell you stories, as an earthly traveler would tell, of the things I see. Sometimes my interpretation of them may be wrong.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
I would slake my thirst sometimes at the wells of old remembrance;
But the water is so deep I fear to fall therein.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
In these unquenchable desires we feel
The thirsty future's dominant appeal;
And through the fire of our impassioned dust
A thousand ancestors their loves reveal.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Philosophy will go on being taught in the world and all over the world. Only a few, perhaps, will reach the deeps of it in this life; but a seed sown to-day may bear fruit long hence.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
Thy love is like deep waters all around--
Warm pulsing waters, in whose brooding sound
The lone wail of my heart is lulled with dreams,
And the far clamour of the world is drowned.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
If you desire something of real value -- tell no one.
You will find it maybe when the eyes of Destiny are turned the other way.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
It has been said that he is a fool who works for philosophy instead of making philosophy work for him; but a man cannot give to the world even a little of a true philosophy without reaping sevenfold himself.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
To get, one must give. That is the Law.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
And after all our toils and dreams and prayers,
'Tis only Love for which the future cares;
Labour and fame are steps along Love's way,
And art is but the garment that he wears.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
But they who drink the Muse's breath
Pay for the draught with many tears--
Their destiny until their death
To seek her shadow down the years.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
I want to say a word to those who are about to die. I want to beg them to forget their bodies as soon as possible after the change which they call death. Oh, the terrible curiosity to go back and look upon that thing which we once believed to be ourselves! The thought comes to us now and then so powerfully that it acts in a way against our will and draws us back to it. With some it is a morbid obsession, and many cannot get free from it while there remains a shred of flesh on the bones which they once leaned upon. Tell them to forget it altogether, to force the thought away, to go out into the other life free. Looking back upon the past is sometimes good, but not upon this relic of the past.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
The difference between a painter and a musician, or between a poet and a novelist, is not a difference of qualities in the entity itself; for each unit contains everything except quantity, and thus has the possibilities of development along any line chosen by its will.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
For a body of dust is a limit to the loving of a soul.
It sees a face and finds it fair, forgetting the myriad who are unseen.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I love to love, but I know not jealousy. If you find another fairer than I, I shall weary of you and go love him -- So beware, if you would hold me!
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
The Rose of Life to us reveals
Her hidden petals without shame,
For in our questing faith she feels
The love that melts the seven seals
Of the Eternal Name.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
Ah, the joy of loving a sleeping thing! All true lovers know that wonder. Sleep is a great magician. His spells are woven in the darkness between the worlds; His philtres are made of herbs that grow by the great river of forgetfulness which flows by the throne of the All-knowing.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Sweet is the oblivion of sleep;
But sweeter far is the sleep beyond oblivion.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Time's hidden ways thine eyes reveal to me:
Deep in their vision broods the memory
Of all the myriad lives thy soul has known,
Thou passionate pilgrim of eternity!
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Call no man free nor count his bondage done,
Though he be master of unminted gold
With kings to do him homage, if his hold
Be not so strong on the immortal sun--The shining, heliocentric Self—that none
May loosen it.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems