“Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me.”

Source: Gifts: an essay

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Ralph Waldo Emerson727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

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“The only gift is a portion of thyself.”

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“The wretched gift eternity
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II.
Prometheus (1816)
Context: Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
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On him the torments of thy rack;
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But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.