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Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes
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Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.

✵ 14. August 1802 – 15. October 1838
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon: 785 quotes11 likes

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Quotes

“Born with them—born with them : all alike! No pleasure equal to the pleasure of tormenting, to a woman.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“Now out upon you, Christmas!
Is this the merry time
When the red hearth blazed, the harper sung,
And the bells rung their glorious chime?...”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1832

“I would not even have him weep
O'er his Italian love's last sleep.
Oh, tears are a most worthless token,
When hearts they would have soothed are broken.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Painter's Love from The London Literary Gazette (14th December 1822)
The Improvisatrice (1824)

“A letter then, breathing of home and affection, is a treasure; it is like a memento from the dead, for absence is as death in all but that its resurrection is in this life.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

“Deceit is this world's passport: who would dare,
However pure the breast, to lay it bare?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Title poem
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“It is like love; oh love should be
An ever-changing thing, —
The love that I could worship must
Be ever on the wing.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

April from The London Literary Gazette (5th April 1823)
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“He leapt upon his steed, and like the wind
They speed them on; at first his giddy brain
Swam like a chaos— mystery of the mind
Which would guide its own workings, but in vain :”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1826

“The twilight, when our earth seems blending
Its human passion with the skies;
And rosy clouds, above ascending,
Wear mortal colours while they rise,
Till, purified, they disappear
Amid the high pale atmosphere.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“Oh! sweet and sudden fire that springs
With but a look to light its wings;
How false to say thou needest time
The bright ascent of hope to climb;
A star thou art, that may not be
Reckoned by dull astronomy!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“I would give worlds, could I believe
One-half that is profess'd me;
Affection! could I think it Thee,
When Flattery has caress'd me.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Song - I pray thee let me weep to-night
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“No one can deny—no one would think of denying—the vast benefit which literature has conferred on mankind; and with what ingratitude has it ever been received!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“Love is divine in our belief
Of its eternity — how vain,
When we have known that Love can die,
To think that he can live again!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

4th February 1826) The Past (under the pen name Iole
The London Literary Gazette, 1826

“Charles coloured, from “a complication of disorders.” First he was quite shy enough to be annoyed at its being supposed that he cared whether there were any young ladies in the world or not; and, secondly, he was quite romantic enough to be shocked at the idea of money supplying the want of a pretty face.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“The bard, the warrior, and the sage,
What win they but one lying page,
Where deeds and words, at hazard thrown,
May be or may not be their own?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Lost Pleiad
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“But Love’s bright fount is never pure;
And all his pilgrims must endure
All passion’s mighty suffering
Ere they may reach the blessed spring.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Title Poem
The Improvisatrice (1824)

“The generality labour under the delusion, that when they have lighted and filled their rooms, they have done their all. They never were more in error. Lighting is much—crowding is much also—but there lacks “something more exquisite still.” This something the countess possessed in its perfection. Any can assemble a crowd, but few can make it mingle.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“The dying chief sprang to his knee,
And the staunch'd wounds well'd fearfully;
But his gash'd arm, what is it now?
Livid his lip, and black his brow,
While over him the slayer stood,
As if he almost scorn'd the blood
That cost so little to be won,—
He strikes,—the work of death is done!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Combat. By Etty
The Troubadour (1825)

“He had married for love, under the frequent delusion of supposing that love will last under every circumstance most calculated to destroy it; and, secondly, that it can supply the place of everything else.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“Faintly coloured like a dream of bliss, a half formed rainbow hung on the departing storm, as fearful of yet giving promise of peace.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

“It is most sad to watch the fall
Of autumn leaves!--but worst of all
It is to watch the flower of spring
Faded in its fresh blossoming!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Title Poem
The Improvisatrice (1824)

“I believe the love of flowers to be as inherent in the disposition as any other inclination.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

“One of those gifted ones that walk the earth,
Like angels in their beauty, and the while
The air is filled with music from their wings.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(31st January 1829) Lines to the Author after Reading the Sorrows of Rosalie
The London Literary Gazette, 1829

“Literary taste is often confounded with literary talent by others, quite as much as by ourselves.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“O Memory! noble power! thy reign is here.
Strange destiny, how thus, from age to age,
Doth man complain of that which he has lost.
Still do departed years, each in their turn,
Seem treasures of happiness gone by:
And while mind, joyful in its far advance,
Plunges amid the future, still the Soul
Seems to regret some other ancient home
To which it is drawn closer by the past.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Translations, From the French

“There is an antique gem, on which her brow
Retains its graven beauty even now.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Erinna
The Golden Violet (1827)

“Alas! alas! how plague-spot like will sin
Spread over the wrung heart it enters in!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Title poem, section VIII.
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“Glorious and beautiful
Were youth's feeling and youth's thought—
Would that we did not annul
All that in us then was wrought!
Would their influence could remain
When the hope and dream depart;
Would we might through life retain
Still some youth within the heart!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(11th August 1832) Youth
The London Literary Gazette, 1832

“It is not in the calm and measured paths of to day that we see the more bold and pronounced characters, whose outlines have been rough-hewn by the strong hand of necessity; yet to such troubled times often belong the development of our noblest and best qualities — the stormy gulf of Ormus throws up the finest pearls. It is not in the season of tranquility that we know aught of the generous devotion, the fertility of resource, and the forgetfulness of self often shown in the hour of trial. When the French revolution broke out, how many, only accustomed to indolence, luxury, and custom, showed that "there was iron in the rose;" and, whether at the call of duty or of affection, were prepared to bear even to the uttermost, and to exert a fortitude till then undreamed of.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Remains

“Of all the months that fill the year
Give April's month to me,
For earth and sky are then so filled
With sweet variety!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“The imagination, which is the source of poetry, has in every country been the beginning as well as the ornament of civilization. It civilizes because it refines.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“… happiness is not for this world — a conviction that cannot be too soon acquired : it will destroy a thousand vain expectations, dissipate the most perplexing of our illusions — the early knowledge that life is but a trial, whose triumph is hereafter, and this earth a place appointed for that sorrow and patient endurance which is gradually fitting us for a better and a happier state.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

“Then gaze not on other eyes, Love;
Breathe not other sighs, Love;
You may find many a brighter one
Than your own rose, but there are none
So true to thee, Love.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

5th January 1822) Song ("Are other eyes beguiling, Love?"
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

“AND the muffled drum rolled on the air,
Warriors with stately step were there;
On every arm was the black crape bound,
Every carbine was turned to the ground:
Solemn the sound of their measured tread,
As silent and slow they followed the dead.
The riderless horse was led in the rear,
There were white plumes waving over the bier:
Helmet and sword were laid on the pall,
For it was a soldier's funeral.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Improvisatrice (1824)

“He sung,—the notes at first were low,
Like the whispers of love, or the breathings of woe:
The waters were hushed, and the winds were stay'd,
As he sang his farewell to his Lesbian maid!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Arion from The London Literary Gazette (23rd November 1822) Fragments in Rhyme IV
The Improvisatrice (1824)

“He knelt him down on the new-raised mound,
His face was bowed on the cold damp ground,
He raised his head, his tears were done,
The father had prayed o'er his only son!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Soldier's Funeral from The London Literary Gazette (16th November 1822)
The Improvisatrice (1824)

“A weight is on the air, for ev'ry breeze
Has, bird-like, folded up its wings for sleep.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Ancestress (Spoken by Bertha)
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“We might have been! — these are but common words,
And yet they make the sum of life's bewailing;”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“She held the cup; and he the while
Sat gazing on her playful smile,
As all the wine he wished to sip
Was one kiss from her rosebud lip.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(8th February 1823) Medallion Wafers: Hercules and Iole
22nd February 1823) Leander and Hero see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
1st March 1823) An Old Man over the Body of his Son see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
The London Literary Gazette, 1823

“The past is the poet's,—that world is his own;
Thence hath his music its truth and its tone.
He calls up the shadows of ages long fled,
And light, as life lovely, illumines the dead.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“The early graced of Grecian song,
The fragrant myrtle tree;
For it doth speak of happy love,
The delicate, the true.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Poetical Portrait I
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“There is no denying the fact, that in all sudden emergencies a woman has ten times the presence of mind, or, to use the common expression, her wits more about her than a man.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“Now, bitter, but useful, mortification is the steppingstone to knowledge, even in a child.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

“That charm of genius, triumph of high art;
Poetry's divination, which reveals
All nature's secrets, such as influence
The heart of man.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Translations, From the French

“Night came—the deep and purple time
Of summer in a southern clime.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“[Julian - disguised]
Oh, jealousy is but
A shadow cast from vanity, which lain
Would take the shape of love to hide its own
Selfish deformity!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

“While we are laid on the battle plain,
Drenched to the skin by the midnight rain,
Pleasant dreams may thy slumber crown,
As thou sinkest to rest amid silk and down :
But shame beside thy pillow stand!
A German maid shall kiss thee not,
A German song rejoice thee not,
And German wine shall warm thee not!
He who has strength to wield a brand,
Let him draw it now for his father-land!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The London Literary Gazette (3rd January 1835) Versions from the German (First Series.) - 'The Gathering' — Koerner.
Translations, From the German

“It was hidden in a wild wood
Of the larch and pine;
It had been unto his childhood
Solitude and shrine, —
There he dream'd the hours away.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(1836-2) (Vol.47) Subjects for Pictures. III. Rienzi Showing Nina the Tomb of his Brother
The Monthly Magazine

“She leant her head upon her hand : “I know not which to choose—
Alas! whichever choice I make, the other I must lose.””

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Choice
Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“I do not agree with Goethe, who says that every man has that hidden in the secret recesses of his bosom, which, if known, would cause his fellow men to turn from him with hatred; on the contrary, I firmly believe that were the workings of the heart known, they would rather win for us favour and affection.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Remains

“Are we not like that actor of old time,
Who wore his mask so long his face took
Its likeness?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

A Summer Evening’s Tale
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)