13 Quotes by James Elroy Flecker

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,Student of our sweet English tongue,Read out my words at night, alone:I was a poet, I was young.Since I can never see your face,And never shake you by the hand,I send my soul through time and spaceTo greet you. You will understand.

We men of this age are rotten with book-lore and with a yearning for the past.

Thy impudence has a monstrous beauty, like the hindquarters of an elephant.

We travel not for trafficking alone;By hotter winds our hearts are fanned:For lust of knowing what should not be knownWe take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

For lust of knowing what should not be known, we take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, We Poets of the proud old lineage Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why What shall we tell you? Tales, marvellous tales Of ships and stars and isles where good men rest.

I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep.

A ship, an isle, a sickle moon With few but with how splendid stars The mirrors of the sea are strewn Between their silver bars!

Half to forget the wandering and pain, Half to remember days that have gone by, And dream and dream that I am home again!