“I have lit my treasured candles,
one by one, to hallow this night.”
Poem without a Hero (1963)
Context: I have lit my treasured candles,
one by one, to hallow this night.
With you, who do not come,
I wait the birth of the year.
Dear God!
the flame has drowned in crystal,
and the wine, like poison, burns
Old malice bites the air,
old ravings rave again,
though the hour has not yet struck.
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Anna Akhmatova99
Russian modernist poet 1889–1966Related quotes
“Everybody is a candle, true. But not everybody is lit.”
Harbhajan Singh Yogi (1929–2004) Indian-American Sikh Yogi
The Eight Human Talents (2001)
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
From The Teaching of Buddha http://www.bdk.or.jp/english/about/popularization/buddhist-scriptures.html, by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), Pg 132. It is a paraphrased version of Section 10 of the Sutra of Forty-two Sections <br class="br">Unclassified
“Now we have lit a candle to the power
Of atoms; now we know we're heirs of light
Itself…”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) American science fiction writer
Sestina of the Space Rocket (1953)
“For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura -- and so goodbye….”
Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
Tom, Scene Seven
Source: The Glass Menagerie (1944)
Context: Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger — anything that can blow your candles out! — for nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles Laura — and so goodbye…
Thich Nhat Tu (1969) Vietnamese philosopher
Inner Freedom: A Spiritual Journey for Prison Inmates (2008)
Roald Dahl book Boy
Edna St. Vincent Millay, in "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); said to be a motto Roald Dahl lived by.
Misattributed
Variant: My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light.
Source: Boy: Tales of Childhood
Edna St. Vincent Millay book A Few Figs from Thistles
Misattributed
Source: Edna St. Vincent Millay, in "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); said to be a motto Roald Dahl lived by.
