“The oaks of ald now they lie in peat yet elms leap where askes lay.”
James Joyce book Finnegans Wake
4.14-15
Finnegans Wake (1939)
“The oak… has not the efficacy of the fir, nor the cypress that of the elm.”
— Vitruvius, book De architectura
Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter IX, Sec. 5
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Vitruvius203
Roman writer, architect and engineer -80–-15 BCRelated quotes
“Eros has shaken my mind,
wind sweeping down the mountain on oaks”
Sappho (-630–-570 BC) ancient Greek lyric poet
Stanley Lombardo translations, Frag. 26
Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881) Swiss philosopher and poet
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Journal
Context: The efficacy of religion lies precisely in what is not rational, philosophic or eternal; its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion according as it demands more faith,—that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery on the other hand is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship, the power of proselytism. When the "cross" became the "foolishness" of the cross, it took possession of the masses.
“You may as well expect pears from an elm.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 40.
“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”
William Congreve The Mourning Bride
Act I, scene i; the first lines of this passage are often rendered in modern spelling as "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast", or misquoted as: "Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast".
The Mourning Bride (1697)
Context: Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
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The Oak from The London Literary Gazette (19th April 1823) Fragments
The Improvisatrice (1824)
Francis Joseph Sherman (1871–1926) Canadian writer
"October" (sonnet) http://www.sonnets.org/shermanf.htm