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Adelaide Anne Procter Quotes

Adelaide Anne Procter was an English poet and philanthropist. She worked prominently on behalf of unemployed women and the homeless, and was actively involved with feminist groups and journals. Procter never married. She became unhealthy, possibly due to her charity work, and died of tuberculosis at the age of 38.

Procter's literary career began when she was a teenager; her poems were primarily published in Charles Dickens's periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round and later published in book form. Her charity work and her conversion to Roman Catholicism appear to have strongly influenced her poetry, which deals most commonly with such subjects as homelessness, poverty, and fallen women.

Procter was the favourite poet of Queen Victoria. Her poetry went through numerous editions in the 19th century; Coventry Patmore called her the most popular poet of the day, after Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Her poems were set to music and made into hymns, and were published in the United States and Germany as well as in England. Nonetheless, by the early 20th century her reputation had diminished, and few modern critics have given her work attention. Those who have, however, argue that Procter's work is significant, in part for what it reveals about how Victorian women expressed otherwise repressed feelings. Wikipedia  

✵ 30. October 1825 – 2. February 1864
Adelaide Anne Procter photo
Adelaide Anne Procter: 24 quotes1 like

Famous Adelaide Anne Procter Quotes

“Be strong to hope, O Heart!
Though day is bright,
The stars can only shine
In the dark night.
Be strong, O Heart of mine,
Look towards the light!”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Be Strong".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“Hours are golden links, God's token
Reaching heaven; but one by one
Take them, lest the chain be broken
Ere the pilgrimage be done.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 583.

“Dreams grow holy put in action; work grows fair through starry dreaming,
But where each flows on unmingling, both are fruitless and in vain.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Philip and Mildred".
Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861)

“A little longer still, and Heaven awaits thee,
And fills thy spirit with a great delight;
Then our pale joys will seem a dream forgotten,
Our Sun a darkness, and our Day a Night.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"A Little Longer".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“How can a mother's heart feel cold or weary
Knowing her dearer self safe, sheltered, warm?
How can she feel her road too dark or dreary,
Who knows her treasure sheltered from the storm?
How can she sin? Our hearts may be unheeding,
Our God forgot, our holy saints defied;
But can a mother hear her dead child pleading,
And thrust those little angel hands aside?”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 52.

“The way is long and dreary,
The path is bleak and bare;
Our feet are worn and weary,
But we will not despair;
More weary was Thy burden,
More desolate Thy ways,
O Lamb of God, who takest
The sin of the world away,
Have mercy upon us.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 110.

Adelaide Anne Procter Quotes about God

“Words are mighty, words are living:
Serpents with their venomous stings,
Or bright angels, crowding round us,
With heaven's light upon their wings:
Every word has its own spirit,
True or false, that never dies;
Every word man's lips have uttered
Echoes in God's skies.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Words".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“I wept that all must die —
"Yet Love," I cried, "doth live, and conquer death —"
And Time passed by,
And breathed on Love, and killed it with his breath
Ere Death was nigh.More bitter far than all
It was to know that Love could change and die —
Hush! for the ages call
"The Love of God lives through eternity,
And conquers all!"”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"The Triumph of Time".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“Kind hearts are here; yet would the tenderest one
Have limits to its mercy; God has none.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 409.

“A little longer, and thy Heart, Belovèd,
Shall beat for ever with a Love divine;
And joy so pure, so mighty, so eternal,
No creature knows and lives, will then be thine.A little longer yet — and angel voices
Shall ring in heavenly chant upon thine ear;
Angels and Saints await thee, and God needs thee:
Beloved, can we bid thee linger here!”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"A Little Longer".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“Be strong to love, O Heart!
Love knows not wrong;
Didst thou love — creatures even,
Life were not long;
Didst thou love God in heaven,
Thou wouldst be strong!”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Be Strong".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

Adelaide Anne Procter Quotes

“Joy is like restless day; but peace divine
Like quiet night;
Lead me, O Lord, — till perfect Day shall shine
Through Peace to Light.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Per Pacem ad Lucem".
A Chaplet of Verses (1862)

“Heaven unites again the links that Earth has broken!
For on Earth so much is needed, but in Heaven Love is all!”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Philip and Mildred".
Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861)

“A little longer yet — a little longer,
Shall violets bloom for thee, and sweet birds sing;
And the lime branches where soft winds are blowing,
Shall murmur the sweet promise of the Spring!”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"A Little Longer".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“Know, dear little one! our Father
Will no gentle deed disdain:
Love on the cold earth beginning
Lives divine in Heaven again,
While the angel hearts that beat there
Still all tender thoughts retain.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"The Angel's Story".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"A Lost Chord".
Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861)

“I do not ask that flowers should always spring
Beneath my feet
I know too well the poison and the sting
Of things too sweet.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Per Pacem ad Lucem".
A Chaplet of Verses (1862)

“I have sought, but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the Organ,
And entered into mine. It may be that Death's bright angel
Will speak in that chord again,
It may be that only in Heaven
I shall hear that grand Amen.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"A Lost Chord".
Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861)

“I do not ask my cross to understand
My way to see:
Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand
And follow Thee.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 594.

“Shine, ye stars of heaven,
On a world of pain!
See old Time destroying
All our hoarded gain;
All our sweetest flowers,
Every stately shrine,
All our hard-earned glory,
Every dream divine! Shine, ye stare of heaven,
On the rolling years!
See how Time, consoling,
Dries the saddest tears,
Bids the darkest storm-clouds
Pass in gentle rain,
While upspring in glory
Flowers and dreams again!”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Shining Stars".
Legends and Lyrics: A Book of Verses (1858)

“I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be
A pleasant road.
I do not ask that Thou wouldst take from me
Aught of its load;”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"Per Pacem ad Lucem".
A Chaplet of Verses (1862)

“Rejoice, oh! grieving heart,
The hours fly past;
With each some sorrow dies,
With each some shadow flies,
Until at last
The red dawn in the east
Bids weary night depart,
And pain is past.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 309.

“If thou couldst trust, poor soul!
In Him who rules the whole,
Thou wouldst find peace and rest;
Wisdom and sight are well, but trust is best.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 597.

“Seated one day at the organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys. I do not know what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.”

Adelaide Anne Procter

"A Lost Chord".
Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861)

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