“There's only a shadow of me
In a manner of speaking, I'm dead”
"John My Beloved"
Lyrics, Carrie and Lowell (2015)
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Sufjan Stevens 35
American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist 1975Related quotes
“Take the dead from the dead, the old proverb said; only a corpse may speak true prophecy.”
Source: The Gunslinger
“I'm dancing in the shadows of life
And death is all around me tonight”
Whaler (1994), Right Beside You
Context: I'm dancing in the shadows of life
And death is all around me tonight
I miss you making love to me right
Beside myself I'm holding you tight
Someone is waiting for me to rise
And drive into the ocean I cried
And I cried and I cried my baby to sleep
Beside myself my soul to keep Right beside you I see
Right beside you I stay
Right beside you I'll be
Right beside you always.
“The dead may speak the truth only, even when it discredits themselves.”
The Golden Fleece (1944), Invocation.
General sources
"The Honored Dead" (1863) memorialized the Union dead; a popular piece for declamation among schoolchildren, also published as "Our Heroes Shall Live"
Miscellany
Context: Oh, tell me not that they are dead — that generous host, that airy army of invisible heroes. They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this nation. Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society, and inspire the people with nobler motives, and more heroic patriotism?
Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. It was your son, but now he is the nation's. He made your household bright: now his example inspires a thousand households. Dear to his brothers and sisters, he is now brother to every generous youth in the land. Before, he was narrowed, appropriated, shut up to you. Now he is augmented, set free, and given to all. Before, he was yours: he is ours. He has died from the family, that he might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgotten or neglected: and it shall by and by be confessed of our modern heroes, as it is of an ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than by his whole life.