“The jests that lit our hours by night
And made them gay,
Soiled a sweet and ignorant soul
And fouled its play.”

—  Djuna Barnes

To a Cabaret Dancer
The Book of Repulsive Women (1915)
Context: p>We watched her come with subtle fire
And learned feet,
Stumbling among the lustful drunk
Yet somehow sweet. We saw the crimson leave her cheeks
Flame in her eyes;
For when a woman lives in awful haste
A woman dies. The jests that lit our hours by night
And made them gay,
Soiled a sweet and ignorant soul
And fouled its play.</p

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The jests that lit our hours by night And made them gay, Soiled a sweet and ignorant soul And fouled its play." by Djuna Barnes?
Djuna Barnes photo
Djuna Barnes 39
American Modernist writer, poet and artist 1892–1982

Related quotes

Joanna Baillie photo

“Sweet sleep be with us, one and all!
And if upon its stillness fall
The visions of a busy brain,
We'll have our pleasure o'er again,
To warm the heart, to charm the sight,
Gay dreams to all! good night, good night.”

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) Scottish poet and dramatist

The Phantom, song (1836); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 201.

James Thomson (B.V.) photo

“The City is of Night, but not of Sleep;
There sweet sleep is not for the weary brain;
The pitiless hours like years and ages creep,
A night seems termless hell.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

Part I
The City of Dreadful Night (1870&ndash;74)

Frederick William Faber photo

“Labor is sweet, for Thou hast toiled,
And care is light, for Thou hast cared;
Let not our works with self be soiled,
Nor in unsimple ways ensnared.
Through life's long day and death's dark night,
O gentle Jesus! be our light.”

Frederick William Faber (1814–1863) British hymn writer and theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 369.

Edward Young photo

“Beautiful as sweet!
And young as beautiful! and soft as young!
And gay as soft! and innocent as gay.”

Edward Young Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night III, Line 81.

Richard Wilbur photo

“Founded on rock and facing the night-fouled sea
A beacon blinks at its own brilliance,
Over and over with cutlass gaze
Solving the Gordian waters …”

Richard Wilbur (1921–2017) American poet

The Beacon

Clive Barker photo

“A soul of water a soul of stone.
A soul by name a soul unknown.
The hours unmake our flesh our bone.
The Soul is all and all alone!”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist
Julian of Norwich photo

“Glad and joyous and sweet is the Blissful lovely Cheer of our Lord to our souls.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 71

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Creators of history always play with our impotence and our ignorance.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

"Game III," p. 98
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Game”

Emily Brontë photo

“The winter wind is loud and wild,
Come close to me, my darling child;
Forsake thy books, and mateless play;
And, while the night is gathering grey,
We'll talk its pensive hours away;”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

Faith and Despondency (1846)

Anna Akhmatova photo

“I have lit my treasured candles,
one by one, to hallow this night.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Poem without a Hero (1963)
Context: I have lit my treasured candles,
one by one, to hallow this night.
With you, who do not come,
I wait the birth of the year.
Dear God!
the flame has drowned in crystal,
and the wine, like poison, burns
Old malice bites the air,
old ravings rave again,
though the hour has not yet struck.

Related topics