“The young men strained upon the crank
To wring the last reluctant inch.
They laughed together, fair and frank,
And threw their loins across the winch.”

— Vita Sackville-West

"Making Cider"
The Land (1926)

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 "The young men strained upon the crank To wring the last reluctant inch. They laughed together, fair and frank, And t…" by Vita Sackville-West?

Vita Sackville-West photo

Vita Sackville-West39

English writer and gardener 1892–1962

Related quotes

“Gentlemen, why do you not laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me day and night, if I did not laugh, I should die.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

“To look upon you was to rejoice that so fair a thing could be; to think of you is still to be young.”

J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish writer

Source: The Little Minister (1891), Ch. 1 : The Love-Light
Context: The gladness of living was in your step, your voice was melody, and he was wondering what love might be.
You were the daughter of a summer night, born where all the birds are free, and the moon christened you with her soft light to dazzle the eyes of man. Not our little minister alone was stricken by you into his second childhood. To look upon you was to rejoice that so fair a thing could be; to think of you is still to be young.

“Full on this casement shone the wintry moon,
And threw warm gules on Madeline’s fair breast,
As down she knelt for heaven’s grace and boon;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest.”

John Keats The Eve of St. Agnes

Stanza 25
Poems (1820), The Eve of St. Agnes

“In my madness I was actually in love with her for the few hours it all lasted; it was the same unmistakable ache and stab across the mind, the same sighs, the same pain, and above all the same reluctance and fear to approach.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

“Claire threw her head and laughed. “There are all kinds of men. The only kind that’re worth anyone’s time are the ones I can’t mangle the first time out.””

Algis Budrys book Rogue Moon

Source: Rogue Moon (1960), Chapter 1, Section 3 (p. 22)

“I've jibe and joke,
And quip and crank,
For lowly folk
And men of rank.”

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo

The Yeomen of the Guard (1888)

“But so fair,
She takes the breath of men away
Who gaze upon her unaware.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Bianca Among the Nightingales http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3035&poem=127031, st. 12 (1862).

“In the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
Quiet eyes.”

Robert Louis Stevenson book Songs of Travel and Other Verses

No. XV
Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896)

“That was the universe: you could beat it once, you could float a message in a bottle across half of eternity, but the universe would always find a way to have the last laugh.”

Alastair Reynolds book Pushing Ice

Source: Pushing Ice (2005), Chapter 36 (p. 492)

“And one laughs out with an exultant joy.
An athlete he - Maybe his young limbs strain
In some remembered game, and not in vain
To win his side the goal - Poor crippled boy,
Who in the waking world will never run again.”

Eva Dobell (1876–1963) British poet

Unsourced, Night Duty

Related topics