Verse, fame and beauty are intense indeed But death intenser
- death is life's high meed.
John Keats
Never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
John Donne
Brazilian poet Olavo Bilac
28 December 1918: "Give me coffee, I'm
going to write".
French poet and novelist Jean Cocteau
11 October 1963: "Since the day of my birth, my death began its
walk. It is walking towards me, without hurrying".
British poet Philip Larkin 2 December 1985:
"I am going to the inevitable".
Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessoa
30 November 1935: "I know not what tomorrow will bring".
Roman Poet Virgil 21 September 19 BCE:
"Mantua bore me, Calabria snatched me away, now Naples holds me; I sang of
pastures, fields, and kings".
Heinrich Heine
17 January 1856: "God will forgive me. It
is his profession".
Emily Dickinson 15 May 1886, who
found poetry in the most common occurrences, said just before dying, "Let us
go in; the fog is rising".
Johann Goethe 22 March 1832: "More
light". It is also reported that "Come my little one, and give me your hand"
were the last words he declared to his daughter-in-law Ottilie.
The Buddhist nun known as Ryonen was a
granddaughter of the famous Japanese warrior Shingen. Her poetical
genius and alluring beauty were such that at seventeen she was
serving the empress as one of the ladies ofthe court. Now the
empress died a sudden death and Ryonen underwent a profound
spiritual ex¬perience: she became acutely aware of the passing
nature of all things. That was when she made up her mind to study
Zen. Ryonen was so lovely that no Zen Master would accept her as a
pupil lest she tempt the other monks; she therefore disfigured her
face with a red-hot iron. Master Hakuo then accepted her as a
disciple.
When she knew her time had come to depart this world she wrote
another poem:
Sixty-six times have these eyes
beheld
the loveliness of Autumn...
Ask no more.
Only listen to the sound of the pines
when no wind stirs.
From Dead Poets Society - "They believe they're destined for great things, just
like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait
until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they
were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing
daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their
legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - Carpe - hear it? - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary".
