The quote "We are no other than a moving row Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go" is famous quote attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer.
The Rubaiyat (1120)
Context: We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show;
Source: The Rubaiyat (1120)
Source: Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics (1982), Ch. 1 : Power-Over and Power-From-WIthin, p. 13
On the work of the metal-smith Tubal-Cain
The Legend of Jubal (1869)
Context: Each day he wrought and better than he planned,
Shape breeding shape beneath his restless hand.
(The soul without still helps the soul within,
And its deft magic ends what we begin.)
Nay, in his dreams his hammer he would wield
And seem to see a myriad types revealed,
Then spring with wondering triumphant cry,
And, lest the inspiring vision should go by,
Would rush to labor with that plastic zeal
Which all the passion of our life can steal
For force to work with. Each day saw the birth
Of various forms, which, flung upon the earth,
Seemed harmless toys to cheat the exacting hour,
But were as seeds instinct with hidden power.
“Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!”
"I Knew a Woman," ll. 1 - 4
Words for the Wind (1958)
Context: I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Source: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
“Therea kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.”
Source: New Chronicles of Rebecca
