“Whatever flames upon the night
Man’s own resinous heart has fed.”

—  W.B. Yeats , book The Tower

II, st. 2
The Tower (1928), Two Songs From a Play http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1741/

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Whatever flames upon the night Man’s own resinous heart has fed." by W.B. Yeats?
W.B. Yeats photo
W.B. Yeats 255
Irish poet and playwright 1865–1939

Related quotes

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Peace to the weary and the beating heart,
That fed upon itself!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

A History of the Lyre
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

Aurelius Augustinus photo

“To my God a heart of flame; To my fellow man a heart of love; To myself a heart of steel.”

Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher

Attributed to Augustine by many sources on line, but without an actual reference.
Disputed

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Ono no Komachi photo

“This night of no moon
There is no way to meet him.
I rise in longing—
My breast pounds, a leaping flame,
My heart is consumed in fire.”

Ono no Komachi (825–900) Japanese poet

Source: Donald Keene's Anthology of Japanese Literature (1955), p. 78

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“The heart should have fed upon the truth, as insects on a leaf, till it be tinged with the color, and show its food in every … minutest fiber.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

On Poesy or Art (1818)

Loreena McKennitt photo

“Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest.”

Loreena McKennitt (1957) Canadian musician and composer

The Mask and Mirror (1994), The Dark Night of The Soul
Context: Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest.
Shrouded by the night and by the secret stair I quickly fled.
The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead.

Bertrand Russell photo

“The facts of science, as they appeared to him [Heraclitus], fed the flame in his soul, and in its light, he saw into the depths of the world.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: 1910s, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays http://archive.org/stream/mysticism00russuoft/mysticism00russuoft_djvu.txt (1918), Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic

Bram Stoker photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“I've always fought to purify wild flame to light,
and kindle whatever light I found to burst in flame.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Odysseus to Hades, Book XI, line 145
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
Context: Monarch of earth, I shall confess my secret craft:
I've always fought to purify wild flame to light,
and kindle whatever light I found to burst in flame.

George William Russell photo

“Flame unto flame shall flow and be
Within thy heart and mine as one.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

By Still Waters (1906)
Context: When the lips I breathed upon
Asked for such love as equals claim
I looked where all the stars were gone
Burned in the day's immortal flame.
"Come thou like yon great dawn to me
From darkness vanquished, battles done:
Flame unto flame shall flow and be
Within thy heart and mine as one.".

Related topics