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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

“It was no fancy, he had named the name
Of love, and at that thought her cheek grew flame:”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Juliet after the Masquerade. By Thompson
The Troubadour (1825)

“Tis soothing, oh! most soothing to the heart,
To rove 'mid scenes where once we have been blest!
Each tree, each blossom, has a thrilling charm;
They seem memorials of those happier hours :
The very sigh that tells they are no more,
Is sweet unto the spirit; former days,
And former feelings, rise upon the soul,
Dear as they once have been.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto II, XII
The Fate of Adelaide (1821)

“It is Rome's secret charm to reconcile
Imagination with our long last sleep.
We are resign'd ourselves, and suffer less
For those we love. The people of the South
Paint closing life in hues less terrible
Than do the gloomy nations of the North :
The sun, like glory, even warms the grave.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Chant of Corinne at the Capitol
Translations, From the French

“I did not choose my gift: too soon my heart,
Watch-like, had pointed to a later hour
Than time had reach'd: and as my years pass'd on,
Shadows and floating visions grew to thoughts,
And thoughts found words, the passionate words of song,
And all to me was poetry.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

A History of the Lyre
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“Let worldly coldness and care depart,
And yield to the spell of the minstrel's art.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Golden Violet - title poem - The First Day
The Golden Violet (1827)

“Fiction is but moulding together the materials collected by every day, in real as well as imagined life; the highest order of excellence carries the impulse along with it. Nature and fortune have this earth for their place of contention, and the victory is too often with the latter.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Remains

“Children are too often unkind to one another, and deny the allowance they so much need in their own case.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

“The first, the very first; oh! none
Can feel again as they have done;
In love, in war, in pride, in all
The planets of life's coronal,
However beautiful or bright,—
What can be like their first sweet light?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto II
The Troubadour (1825)

“They built a temple for the God,
'Twas in a myrtle grove,
Where the bee and the butterfly
Vied for each blossom's love.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“Alas!
We give our destiny from our own hands,
And trust to those most frail of all frail things,
The chances of humanity.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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

“We enjoy no pleasure so much as we do tormenting ourselves.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“It is not him, not the bold enemy
That rushes fiercely on the healthful breast.
For such I have no fear. ’Tis this dull jail
That makes the hero and the coward one!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Translations, From the German

“There must be some deep-rooted anti-social principle in every man's nature, so dearly does he love aught that separates him from his kind; or is it but one of the many shapes taken by that mental kaleidoscope, vanity, the varying and the glittering, the desire of distinction, sinking into that of notice?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“The history of most fictions would be far stranger than the fictions themselves; but it would be a dark and sad chronicle. Half the works that constitute the charm of our leisure, that give their own interest to the long November evening, or add to the charm of a summer noon beneath the greenwood tree, are the offspring of poverty and of pain. … How often is the writer obliged to put his own trouble, his suffering, or his sorrow aside, to finish the task! The hand may tremble, the eyes fill with unbidden tears, and the temples throb with feverish pain, yet how often is there some hard and harsh necessity, which says, "the work must be done.””

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Remains

“On one side, lemons are selling for a shilling a dozen; on the other, oranges for sixpence. One man blows a horn in your ear, and offers you the Standard; another exerts his lungs, and shews you the Courier. Pencils are to be had for a penny; and penknives, with from three to six blades each, for eighteen pence a-dozen. A fellow with a trunk turns its corner on your temples; another deposits a box, with the grocery of a family —sugar, soap, candles, and all—on your toes. A gigantic gentleman nearly knocks you down in his hurry; and an elderly Jew slips past you so neatly, that you tumble over him before you are aware. Every body is always too late, and therefore every body is in a bustle. Two policemen keep the peace; and half-a-dozen individuals, whose notions on the law of property are at variance with established principles or prejudices, attend for the purpose of breaking it. Add to these some females with shawls and sharp elbows; and pattens, whose iron rings are for the benefit of foot-passengers. Such is the White Horse Cellar, and the pavement from Dover Street to Albemarle Street.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“…; but conscience, like a child, is soon lulled to sleep; and habit is our idea of eternity.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“[From Lee]: I believe that the mind may make its own immortality : thought is the spiritual part of existence; and so long as my mind influences others, so long as my thoughts remain behind, so long shall my spirit be conscious and immortal. The body may perish—not so the essence which survives in the living and lasting page.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“The future! ah, there hath the spirit its home,
In its distance is written the glorious to come.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“But these days
Of visible poetry have long been past!—
No fear that the young hunter may profane
The haunt of some immortal;”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“My spell is done, my prize is won;
True love! thou hast equal none;
True love! who could choose for thee
Gold or gems or vanity?
Where is the spell whose charm will prove,
Like the spell of thy charm, true love?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(28th February 1824) Metrical Tales. Tale I. The Three Wells - A Fairy Tale
The London Literary Gazette, 1824

“Death came like a friend to restore thee
To those who had died before thee:
Father, mother,
Sister, brother—
There were none of these to mourn o’er thee.
But now that Death has found thee,
Thy kindred and friends are round thee;
In their rest they are laid
In the dark yew shade,
And cold sleep like their own has bound thee.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(18th August 1827) Euthanasia
The London Literary Gazette, 1827

“It is the strangest problem of humanity — one too, for which the closest investigation can never quite account — to trace the progress by which innocence becomes guilt, and how those who formerly trembled to think of crime, are led on to commit that at which they once shuddered.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“The woman was in abject misery—that worst of poverty, which is haunted by shame—the only relic left by better days. She shrunk from all efforts at recovery, refused to administer the medicines, and spoke of the child's death but as a blessing.
My God! and is the daily page of life
Darken'd with wretchedness like this?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Dying Child
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“They see the mortal maiden ride
In honour by the chieftan's side,
So beautiful, so free from sin,
Worthy was she such boon to win :
The spirit race that floated round
Were not more pure, more stainless found”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Golden Violet - The Haunted Lake
The Golden Violet (1827)

“Hope deferred is sickness to the heart — and she was now suffering that sickness, at its worst.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

“The bride was young and beautiful, the bridegroom stern and old,—
But the silken rein was hung with pearls, the housings bright with gold.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

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

“There is a flower, a magical flower,
On which love hath laid a fairy power;
Gather it on the eve of St. John,
When the clock of the village is tolling one;
Let no look be turned, no word be said,
And lay the rose-leaves under your head;
Your sleep will be light, and pleasant your rest,
For your visions will be of the youth you love best.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(28th December 1822) Fragments in Rhyme X: The Eve of St. John
28th December 1822) Fragments in Rhyme XI: The Emerald Ring — a Superstition see The Improvisatrice (1824
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

“One rich light
Broke thro' the shadow of the tempest's wing,
While the black clouds, with gold and purple edged,
Caught every moment warmer hues, until
'Twas all one sparkling arch, and, like a king
In triumph o'er his foes, the Sun god sought
The blue depths of the sea; — the waters yet
Were ruffled with the storm, and the white foam
Yet floated on the billows, while the wind
Murmured at times like to an angry child,
Who sobs even in his slumber.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(2nd February 1822) Poetic Sketches, No.4
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

“Sympathy is the surest destruction of selfishness. Children, like the grown person, grow the better for participation in the sufferings where their own only share is pity.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

“Water—the mighty, the pure, the beautiful, the unfathomable—where is thy element so glorious as it is in thine own domain, the deep seas? What an infinity of power is in the far Atlantic, the boundary of two separate worlds, apart like those of memory and of hope! or in the bright Pacific, whose tides are turned to gold by a southern sun, and in whose bosom sleep a thousand isles, each covered with the verdure, the flowers, and the fruit of Eden! But, amid all thy hereditary kingdoms, to which hast thou given beauty, as a birthright, lavishly as thou hast to thy favourite Mediterranean? The silence of a summer night is now sleeping on its bosom, where the bright stars are mirrored, as if in its depths they had another home and another heaven. A spirit, cleaving air midway between the two, might have paused to ask which was sea, and which was sky. The shadows of earth and earthly things, resting omen-like upon the waters, alone shewed which was the home and which the mirror of the celestial host.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“[Julian]
Why did I try a faith I should have known
Spotless as the white dove. I cannot feel
The beating of her heart. I'll kiss the colour
Back to her cheek. Oh, God! her lip is ice —
There is no breath upon it! —
AGNES, thy JULIAN is thy murderer!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(26th October 1822) Dramatic Scene I
(2nd November 1822) Dramatic Scene II see The Vow of the Peacock (1835) Bacchus and Ariadne
16th November 1822) Fragments in Rhyme I: The Soldier's Funeral see The Improvisatrice (1824
16th November 1822) Fragments in Rhyme II: Lines Written under a Picture of a Girl Burning a Love Letter see The Improvisatrice (1824
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

“To know yourself less beloved than you love, is a dreadful feeling”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

“Alas! she looked but in that eye
Where now was writ her destiny.
The heart love leaves looks back ever;
The heart where he is dwelling, never.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“Genius doth catch the music of the spheres,
Which mortal ear was never meant to know.
Genius can penetrate the mysteries
Of feeling, all unknown to other hearts;
A power hath entered in the inmost soul,
Whose presence may not be contained.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Translations, From the French

“Few are the beliefs, still fewer the superstitions of to-day. We pretend to account for everything, till we do not believe enough for that humility so essential to moral discipline. But the dark creed of the fatalist still holds its ground — there is that within us, which dares not deny what, in the still depths of the soul, we feel to have a mysterious predominance. To a certain degree we controul our own actions — we have the choice of right or wrong; but the consequences, the fearful consequences, lie not with us. Let any one look upon the most important epochs of his life; how little have they been of his own making — how one slight thing has led on to another, till the result has been the very reverse of our calculations. Our emotions, how little are they under our own controul! how often has the blanched lip, or the flushed cheek, betrayed what the will was strong to conceal! Of all our sensations, love is the one which has most the stamp of Fate. What a mere chance usually leads to our meeting the person destined to alter the whole current of our life. What a mystery even to ourselves the influence which they exercise over us. Why should we feel so differently towards them, to what we ever felt before? An attachment is an epoch in existence — it leads to casting off old ties, that, till then, had seemed our dearest; it begins new duties; often, in a woman especially, changes the whole character; and yet, whether in its beginning, its continuance or its end, love is as little within our power as the wind that passes, of which no man knows whither it goeth or whence it comes.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

No.14. The Bride of Lammermuir — LUCY ASHTON.
Literary Remains

“And had he not long read
Her heart's hush’d secret in the soft dark eye
Lighted at his approach, and on the cheek
Colouring all crimson at his lightest look?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Love’s Last Lesson
The Golden Violet (1827)

“The startled terror of remorse that dares not think of what it fears, is as inconsistent as all other human feelings.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Other Gift Books

“... the desolate
Is doubly sorrowful when it recalls
It was not always desolate.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Change from The London Literary Gazette (3rd January 1829)
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“Spirit, that ruleth man's life to its ending,
Chance, Fortune, Fate, answer my summoning now;
The storm o'er the face of the night is descending,—
Fair moon, the dark clouds hide thy silvery brow.
Let these bring thy answer, and tell me if sadness
For ever man's penance and portion must be;
Doth the morning come forth from a birthplace of gladness?
Is there peace, is there rest, in thine empire or thee?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

A Night in May
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

“He fell as other thousands do,
Trampled down where they fall,
While on a single name is heap'd
The glory gain'd by all.
Yet even he whose common grave
Lies in the open fields,
Died not without a thought of all
The joy that glory yields.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Record
The Troubadour (1825)

“O dream of fame, what hast thou been to me
But the destroyer of life's calm content!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Erinna
The Golden Violet (1827)

“And o'er them lowers destruction, high in air,
Upon those jutting crags, whose rugged sides,
Riven in fragments, and like ruins pil'd,
Seem as that giants of those ancient days
When earthborn creatures braved th' Olympic Gods,
Those of whom fable tells, had torn away
Rocks from their solid base, and with strong arm,
Parted the mountains: there the avalanche hangs,
Mighty, but tremulous; just a light breath
Will loosen it from off its airy throne;
Then down it hurls in wrath, like to the sound
Of thunder amid storms, or as the voice
Of rushing waters—death in its career.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Canto I, I
The Fate of Adelaide (1821)

“And when the reckless crowd among
I speak of one sweet art,
How lightly can I name the song,
Which yet has wrung my heart!
That lute and heart alike have chords
Not to be spoken of in words”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(1826-2) The Wish
The Monthly Magazine

“The discharge of a duty from affection is the best solace for sorrow.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“Alas, the strange varieties or life!
We live 'mid perils and pleasures, like
Characters 'graven on the sand, or hues
Colouring the rainbow. Wild as a sick fancy
And changeful as a maiden, is this dream,
This brief dream on earth - - -”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

(7th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the First. The Mine
14th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Second. Gladesmuir see The Improvisatrice (1824
21st September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Third. The Minstrel of Portugal see The Improvisatrice (1824
28th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Fourth. The Castilian Nuptuals see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
5th October 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Fifth. The Lover's Rock see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
12th October 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Sixth. The Basque girl and Henri Quatre see The Improvisatrice (1824
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

“I do firmly believe that the Londoner is as contented with his city home as the dweller in the fairest valley among the Appennines; and that habit brings its usual indifference as to place.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

“She spoke, they were but a few hurried words —
Of the sweet flowers around, the heat, the night —
Yet were they such as the blest heart records
For many an after-moment's long delight;
They touch'd upon his spirit's inmost chords;
Though broken was the sense, the accents light,
Yet sweeter was to him that tremulous tone
Than all that eloquence were proud to own.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

26th August 1826) Metrical Fragments No. II. Tasso’s last interview with the Princess Leonora. (under the pen name Iole
The London Literary Gazette, 1826

“There stood she, even as a statue stands,
With head droop'd downward, and with clasped hands;
Such small white hands that match'd her ivory feet,
How may they bear that scorching fire to meet?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Golden Violet - The Child of the Sea
The Golden Violet (1827)

“But preference, and its consequence, neglect, is the child's most cruel wrong. The bitter feeling of comparing our own lot with another's, will come quite soon enough without its being taught in infancy.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Monthly Magazine

“I have such eagerness of hope
To benefit my kind;
And feel as if immortal power
Were given to my mind.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Source: The Venetian Bracelet (1829), Lines of Life