“I have known exile and a wild passion
Of longing changing to a cold ache.
King, beggar and fool, I have been all by turns,
Knowing the body’s sweetness, the mind’s treason;
Taliesin still, I show you a new world, risen,
Stubborn with beauty, out of the heart’s need.”

—  R.S. Thomas

"Taliesin 1952"
Song at the Year's Turning (1955)

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 "I have known exile and a wild passion Of longing changing to a cold ache. King, beggar and fool, I have been all by t…" by R.S. Thomas?
R.S. Thomas photo
R.S. Thomas 58
Welsh poet 1913–2000

Related quotes

Elizabeth I of England photo

“I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too,”

Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603

Speech to the Troops at Tilbury (1588)
Context: I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm.

William Cowper photo

“What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

No. 1, "Walking With God"
Olney Hymns (1779)

Heinrich Heine photo

“Splendid if I overcome
My earthy passion,
But if I succeed not,
Still I have known happiness!”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

“There have been keen agonies, sore heart-aches, but they have been short, and a sweet peace abides. Can it be His peace? Is it possible that to such a weak, sinful creature as I, the Comforter has indeed come? I must believe this, and that it is His presence that cheers me.”

Arthur Kenney (1776–1855) Irish dean

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 446.

Jack Osbourne photo

“It's been real weird. It wasn't how I expected my life to turn out. Especially, mainly pertaining to the show. It never crossed my mind that one day I'm gonna be big and famous and have my own TV show, you know?”

Jack Osbourne (1985) Son of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne

MTV.com Jack Talks About His Addiction and Recovery

Charles Stross photo

“You know, if I tried to change the minds of everyone who I thought needed changing, I’d never have time to do anything else.”

Charles Stross book Glasshouse

Source: Glasshouse (2006), Chapter 15, “Recovery” (p. 255)

John Fante photo

“I felt his hot tears and the loneliness of man and the sweetness of all men and the aching haunting beauty of the living”

John Fante book Full of Life

Source: Full of Life

Cat Stevens photo

“I said, ‘Put back your heart, and sing, sing
While you know you’re still living.’
Sing, sing, sing, while you know there’s still –
New Music, new Music, new Music
Sweet Music can lighten us
Can brighten the world – can save us”

Cat Stevens (1948) British singer-songwriter

Music
Song lyrics, Buddha and the Chocolate Box (1974)

Pliny the Younger photo

“It is long since I have known the sweets of leisure and repose; since I have known in fine, that indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing, and being nothing.”
Olim nescio quid sit otium quid quies, quid denique illud iners quidem, iucundum tamen nihil agere nihil esse.

Pliny the Younger (61–113) Roman writer

Letter 9, 1.
Letters, Book VIII

Edwin Markham photo

“One thing shines clear in the heart's sweet reason,
One lightning over the chasm runs —
That to turn from love is the world's one treason
That darkens all the suns.”

Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American poet

Source: The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913), The Crowning Hour, II
Context: p>If this is a dream, then perhaps our dreaming
Can touch life's height to a finer fire:
Who knows but the heavens and all their seeming
Were made by the heart's desire?One thing shines clear in the heart's sweet reason,
One lightning over the chasm runs —
That to turn from love is the world's one treason
That darkens all the suns.</p

Related topics