“These blossoms, gathered in familiar paths,
With dear companions now passed out of sight,
Shall not be laid upon their graves.”

—  Lucy Larcom

Introductory poem.
Poems (1869)
Context: These blossoms, gathered in familiar paths,
With dear companions now passed out of sight,
Shall not be laid upon their graves. They live,
Since love is deathless. Pleasure now nor pride
Is theirs in mortal wise, but hallowing thoughts
Will meet the offering, of so little worth,
Wanting the benison death has made divine.

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 "These blossoms, gathered in familiar paths, With dear companions now passed out of sight, Shall not be laid upon thei…" by Lucy Larcom?
Lucy Larcom photo
Lucy Larcom 25
American teacher, poet, author 1824–1893

Related quotes

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain photo

“We pass now quickly from each other's sight; but I know full well that where beyond these passing scenes you shall be, there will be heaven!”

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828–1914) Union Army general and Medal of Honor recipient

The Passing of the Armies: An account of the Army of the Potomac, based upon personal reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps (1915), "The Last Review"
Context: You in my soul I see, faithful watcher by my cot-side long days and nights together through the delirium of mortal anguish, steadfast, calm, and sweet as eternal love. We pass now quickly from each other's sight; but I know full well that where beyond these passing scenes you shall be, there will be heaven!

“He laid his hand upon "the Ocean's mane,"
And played familiar with his hoary locks.”

Robert Pollok book The Course of Time

Book iv, line 689. Compare: "And I have loved thee, Ocean! … And laid my hand upon thy mane,—as I do here", Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), Canto IV, st. 184.
The Course of Time (published 1827)

Pelagius photo

“We can never enter upon the path to virtue unless we have hope as our guide and companion.”

Pelagius (360–420) British monk

Letter to Demetrias

Robert Jordan photo

“At the end of time,
when the many become one,
the last storm shall gather
its angry winds
to destroy a land already dying.
And at its center, the blind man shall stand
upon his own grave.
There he shall see again,
and weep for what has been wrought.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Ending
(27 October 2009)

John Banville photo

“The white May blossom swooned slowly into the open mouth of the grave.”

John Banville (1945) Irish writer

The opening line of a juvenile and "dreadful imitation" of Joyce's Dubliners - John Banville http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jun/10/johnbanville?INTCMP=SRCH, The Guardian (22 July 2008).

Joseph Campbell photo

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Thomas Gray photo

“The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian

Source: An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

“From the day of my coming hither
Full seventy years have passed.
Now, setting out on my final path
My two legs trample the sky.”

Tsugen Jakurei (1322–1391)

Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6; Cited : Sushila Blackman. Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die. 2005. p. 66

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Whoso walketh in solitude,
And inhabiteth the wood,
Choosing light, wave, rock, and bird,
Before the money-loving herd,
Into that forester shall pass
From these companions power and grace.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Woodnotes II http://www.emersoncentral.com/poems/wood_notes_ii.htm, st. 4
1840s, Poems (1847)

Khalil Gibran photo

“Always have we been our own forerunners, and always shall we be. And all that we have gathered and shall gather shall be but seeds for fields yet unploughed. We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

The Forerunner (1920)
Context: You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation.
And I too am my own forerunner, for the long shadow stretching before me at sunrise shall gather under my feet at the noon hour. Yet another sunrise shall lay another shadow before me, and that also shall be gathered at another noon.
Always have we been our own forerunners, and always shall we be. And all that we have gathered and shall gather shall be but seeds for fields yet unploughed. We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.

Related topics