In the Belly of the Beast (1981)
“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”
“Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!”
"The Old Player" (1861), in Songs in Many Keys (1862).
Context: Dream on! Though Heaven may woo our open eyes,
Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies;
Truth is for other worlds, and hope for this;
The cheating future lends the present's bliss;
Life is a running shade, with fettered hands,
That chases phantoms over shifting sands;
Death a still spectre on a marble seat,
With ever clutching palms and shackled feet;
The airy shapes that mock life's slender chain,
The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain,
Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!
Enlightenment
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)
Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
“Soon there'll be nothing left of me
Nothing left to release”
"Bring Me the Disco King"
Song lyrics, Reality (2003)
“Life is a space between two illusions: Birth and Death…”
ESOF (2010).
“But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. ”
1:73
"Quotes", Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2002)
“For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion.”
Introduction to Ward's English Poets (1880)
Context: For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.
