“But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?
Oh when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?”
James Beattie (1735–1803) Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher
The Hermit
“Ah! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!”
The Hermit
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Ah! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!" by James Beattie?
James Beattie18
Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher 1735–1803Related quotes
“But an old age serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night,
Shall lead thee to thy grave.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet
To a Young Lady, st. 3 (1805).
François-René de Chateaubriand book Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe
Book XLII: Ch. 18: A summary of the changes which have occurred around the globe in my lifetime
Mémoires d'outre-tombe (1848 – 1850)
Context: New storms will arise; one can believe in calamities to come which will surpass the afflictions we have been overwhelmed by in the past; already, men are thinking of bandaging their old wounds to return to the battlefield. However, I do not expect an imminent outbreak of war: nations and kings are equally weary; unforeseen catastrophe will not yet fall on France: what follows me will only be the effect of general transformation. No doubt there will be painful moments: the face of the world cannot change without suffering. But, once again, there will be no separate revolutions; simply the great revolution approaching its end. The scenes of tomorrow no longer concern me; they call for other artists: your turn, gentlemen!
As I write these last words, my window, which looks west over the gardens of the Foreign Mission, is open: it is six in the morning; I can see the pale and swollen moon; it is sinking over the spire of the Invalides, scarcely touched by the first golden glow from the East; one might say that the old world was ending, and the new beginning. I behold the light of a dawn whose sunrise I shall never see. It only remains for me to sit down at the edge of my grave; then I shall descend boldly, crucifix in hand, into eternity.
"Souvenirs" (《夜雨寄北》), in Gems of Chinese Literature, trans. Herbert A. Giles
Variant translation:
You ask me when I am coming. I do not know.
I dream of your mountains and autumn pools brimming all night with the rain.
Oh, when shall we be trimming wicks again together in your western window?
When shall I be hearing your voice again all night in the rain?
"A Note on a Rainy Night", in Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty, trans. Witter Bynner
“From the first dawn of Life, unto the Grave,
Poor Womankind's in every State, a Slave.”
Sarah Egerton (1782–1847) English actress
Source: The Emulation http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/emulation (1703), Lines 3–4
“I say to this night: "Pass more slowly"; and the dawn will come to dispel the night.”
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French writer, poet, and politician
The Lake (1820), st. 8
“Of late the nights
are dawning
plum-blossom white.”
Yosa Buson (1716–1783) poet from Japan
Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6
