“The desert is not an island: the island is not enchanted: and the desert is no habitation for men.”
"To speak about the soul"
Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 23
“The desert is not an island: the island is not enchanted: and the desert is no habitation for men.”
"To speak about the soul"
“These are Fortunate Islands,
These are lands without a place”
Poem "As Ilhas Afortunadas", verses 11-12
Message
Original: São ilhas afortunadas,
São terras sem ter lugar
p. 53. https://archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/53/mode/1up
Memories (1919) https://archive.org/stream/memoriesbyadmira00fishuoft#page/n0/mode/2up
J'ai vu des archipels sidéraux! et des îles
Dont les cieux délirants sont ouverts au vogueur:
Est-ce en ces nuits sans fond que tu dors et t'exiles,
Million d'oiseaux d'or, ô future Vigueur ?
St. 25
Le Bateau Ivre http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html (The Drunken Boat) (1871)
“Alone dwells every man and everyone mocks everyone else, and a deserted island is our pain.”
Le livre de ma mère [The Book of My Mother] (1954)
Source: Star Maker (1937), Chapter XVI: Epilogue: Back to Earth (p. 187)
Gramophone
Context: I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. I really can't think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that -- its humanity.
"Atlantis"
Poems New and Collected (1998), Calling Out to Yeti (1957)