“The water is calm and still below,
For the winds and waves are absent there,
And the sands are bright as the stars that glow
In the motionless fields of upper air.”

—  James Gates Percival

The coral Grove, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

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 water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars th…" by James Gates Percival?
James Gates Percival photo
James Gates Percival 4
American geologis, poet, and surgeon 1795–1856

Related quotes

Lin Huiyin photo

“The moon is still bright;
The lights below the hills are still on;
The sky is still full of stars
Hanging like dreams.”

Lin Huiyin (1904–1955) Chinese architect and writer

(zh-CN) 一样是月明，
一样是隔山灯火，
满天的星
只使人不见，
梦似的挂起。
"Do Not Throw Away" (《别丢掉》), translated by Michelle Yeh in A Chorus for Peace: A Global Anthology of Poetry by Women (University of Iowa Press, 2002), p. 41
Variant translation:
The moon is still so bright;
Beyond the hills the lamp sheds the same light.
The sky besprinkled with star on star,
But I do not know where you are.
It seems
You hang above like dreams.
Xu Yuanchong, Vanished Springs: The Life and Love of a Chinese Intellectual (Vantage Press, 1999), pp. 44–45

Federico García Lorca photo

“The still pool of air
under the branch of echo.

The still pool of water
under a frond of stars.

The still pool of your mouth
under a thicket of kisses.”

Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director

<p>El remanso del aire
bajo la rama del eco.</p><p>El remanso del agua
bajo fronda de luceros.</p><p>El remanso de tu boca
bajo espesura de besos.</p>
" Remansos: Variación http://www.poesia-inter.net/fgls0402.htm" from El Diván del Tamarit (1940)

Thomas Campbell photo

“On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below.”

Thomas Campbell (1777–1844) British writer

Part I, line 385
Pleasures of Hope (1799)

John Muir photo

“"The water in music the oar forsakes." The air in music the wing forsakes. All things move in music and write it. The mouse, lizard, and grasshopper sing together on the Turlock sands, sing with the morning stars.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

letter to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr, from Yosemite Valley (September 1874); published in William Federic Badè, The Life and Letters of John Muir http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/life_and_letters/default.aspx (1924), chapter 11: On Widening Currents <!-- Terry Gifford, LLO, page 203 -->
(Presumably paraphrasing from the poem Woodnotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Come learn with me the fatal song / Which knits the world in music strong / … / and the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake / The wood is wiser far than thou".)
(Turlock: Town where Muir changed from railroad to foot travel in this particular journey from Oakland, California, to Yosemite Valley.)
1870s

Langston Hughes photo

“How still,
How strangely still
The water is today,
It is not good
For water
To be so still that way.

~ "Sea Calm”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist
William Styron photo

“’Neath cold sand I dreamed of death / but woke at dawn to see / in glory, the bright, the morning star.”

William Styron book Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice (1979)

Homér photo

“As stars in the night sky glittering
round the moon's brilliance blaze in all their glory
when the air falls to a sudden, windless calm…
all the lookout peaks stand out and the jutting cliffs
and the steep ravines and down from the high heavens bursts
the boundless, bright air and all the stars shine clear
and the shepherd's heart exults.”

Homér Iliad

VIII. 551–555 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Alexander Pope's translation:
: As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain's head;
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Jacopo Sannazaro photo

“He ploughs the waves, sows the sand, and hopes to gather the wind in a net, who places his hopes on the heart of woman.”

Jacopo Sannazaro (1458–1530) Italian writer

Ne l'onde solca, e ne l'arena semina,
E'l vago vento spera in rete accogliere
Chi sue speranze fonda in cor di femina.
Ecloga Octava; "Plough the sands" found in Juvenal, Satires, VII. Jeremy Taylor, Discourse on Liberty of Prophesying (1647), Introduction.

Phillis Wheatley photo

“Such, and so many, moves the warrior's train. In bright array they seek the work of war, Where high unfurl'd the ensign waves in air. Shall I to Washington their praise recite? Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight.”

Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) American poet

1770s, To His Excellency, George Washington (1775)

Ray Bradbury photo

“Into the air, over the valleys, under the stars, above a river, a pond, a road, flew Cecy. Invisible as new spring winds, fresh as the breath of clover rising from twilight fields, she flew.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Related topics