James Elroy Flecker Quotes & Sayings

We travel not for trafficking alone;
By hotter winds our hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. — James Elroy Flecker

We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, We Poets of the proud old lineage Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why What shall we tell you? Tales, marvellous tales Of ships and stars and isles where good men rest. — James Elroy Flecker

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further; it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lies a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand. — James Elroy Flecker

The poet's business is not to save the soul of man but to make it worth saving. — James Elroy Flecker

I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep. — James Elroy Flecker

But have you wine and music still,And statues and a bright-eyed love,And foolish thoughts of good and ill,And prayers to them who sit above? — James Elroy Flecker

When the great markets by the sea shut fastAll that calm Sunday that goes on and on:When even lovers find their peace at last,And Earth is but a star, that once had shone. — James Elroy Flecker

It is not the poet's business to save man's soul but to make it worth saving ... However, few poets have written with a clear theory of art for art's sake, it is by that theory alone that their work has been, or can be, judged; -and rightly so if we remember that art embraces all life and all humanity, and sees in the temporary and fleeting doctrines of conservative or revolutionary only the human grandeur or passion that inspires them. — James Elroy Flecker

And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin. — James Elroy Flecker

For pines are gossip pines the wide world through And full of runic tales to sigh or sing. — James Elroy Flecker

I look down the farthest side of the mountain,
fulfilled and understanding all,
and truly content that
I lived a full life and one
that was my own choice — James Elroy Flecker

For the spear was a desert physician, That cured not a few of ambition, And drave not a few to perdition, With medicine bitter and strong. — James Elroy Flecker

A ship, an isle, a sickle moon With few but with how splendid stars The mirrors of the sea are strewn Between their silver bars! — James Elroy Flecker

Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing. Have you heard
That silence where the birds are dead yet something pipeth like a bird? — James Elroy Flecker

We men of this age are rotten with book-lore and with a yearning for the past. — James Elroy Flecker

Thy impudence has a monstrous beauty, like the hindquarters of an elephant. — James Elroy Flecker

Half to forget the wandering and pain, Half to remember days that have gone by, And dream and dream that I am home again! — James Elroy Flecker