1840s, Letter to William Lloyd Garrison (1846)
Context: In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, — when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.
“As soon as I take down her book and open it… My skies rise higher and hang younger stars.”
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Eavan Boland 2
Irish poet 1944Related quotes
“Perhaps man will rise ever higher as soon as he ceases to flow out into a god.”
Sec. 285
The Gay Science (1882)
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