“How can they say confiding is relief?
Light are the woes that to the eyelids spring,
Subdued and soften'd by the tears they bring;
But there are some too long, too well conceal'd,
Too deeply felt,—that are but once reveal'd:
Like the withdrawing of the mortal dart,
And then the life-blood follows from the heart;
Sorrow, before unspoken by a sigh,
But which, once spoken, only hath to die.”

—  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

The Neglected One
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)

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 "How can they say confiding is relief? Light are the woes that to the eyelids spring, Subdued and soften'd by the tear…" by Letitia Elizabeth Landon?
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon785
English poet and novelist 1802–1838

Related quotes

William Blake photo

“Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?”

William Blake On Another's Sorrow

On Another's Sorrow, st. 1
1780s, Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)

Natacha Rambova photo

“I felt as if I had at last returned home. The first few days I was there I couldn't stop the tears streaming from my eyes. It was not sadness, but some emotional impact from the past- a returning to a place once loved after too long a time.”

Natacha Rambova (1897–1966) American film personality and fashion designer

On visiting Egypt, p. 207
Madam Valentino: The Many Lives of Natacha Rambova (1991)

George MacDonald photo

“Alas! how easily things go wrong!
A sigh too deep or a kiss too long,
And then comes a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again.”

George MacDonald book Phantastes

Source: Phantastes (1858)

“Too much you've view'd, too poignantly you've felt,
Too long on human sufferings we've dwelt;
These woful visions shift, but scenes appear,
Which tho' less painful, cause the conscious tear.”

Isaac Gompertz (1774–1856)

"Time", Part IV, pp. 199–200
Time, or Light and Shade (1815)

“Nor peace nor ease the heart can know
Which, like the needle true,
Turns at the touch of joy or woe,
But turning, trembles too.”

Frances Greville (1727–1789) Irish poet

A Prayer for Indifference, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Alain-Fournier photo

“Who can say what obscure forces were then at work in a heart that had never been tamed? I was to ask myself that question over and over before I knew the answer — and then it was too late. Some secret remorse? Some unaccountable sorrow? Fear of seeing this incomparable happiness slip away from his grasp? And in that case, some terrible temptation to smash at once, and irrevocably, this rare treasure he had won …”

Alain-Fournier book Le Grand Meaulnes

Source: Le Grand Meaulnes (1913), Ch. 9.

Billy Joel photo

“Advice is cheap you can take it from me.
It's yours to keep 'cause opinions are free.
Nobody knows about the trouble I've seen.
Nobody's perfect, mister, nobody's clean.
It cost too much and takes too long to find out too late.
Some words are not heard 'til after they're spoken.
Your role was protective, your soul was too defective.
Some people just don't have a heart to be broken.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

The Great Wall of China.
Song lyrics, River of Dreams (1993)

Virgil photo

“Sorrow too deep to tell, your majesty,
You order me to feel and tell once more.”
Infandum, regina, jubes<!--iubes?--> renovare dolorem.

Virgil book Aeneid

Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 3 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald); these are the opening words of Aeneas's narrative about the fall of Troy, addressed to Queen Dido of Carthage.

Related topics