"Lest the awe should dwell
And turn your frolic to fret,
You shall look on my power at the helping hour,
But then you shall forget!
Lest limbs be reddened and rent,
I spring the trap that is set.
As I loose the snare, you may glimpse me there,
For surely you shall forget!"
Kenneth Grahame, "Wind in the Willows"
🎨 Arthur Rackham
"Sing no more ditties, sing no more
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey, nonny, nonny."
"The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond.... All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere."
"When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the Mole in an armchair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing gown and slippers for him, and told him river stories till suppertime."
Kenneth Grahame, "The Wind in the Willows"
🎨 E. H. Shepard
"I felt myself mysteriously drawn towards him.... I'll try a pagan friend since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.... [He asked] whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes, whereat I thought he looked pleased."
"My birthday began with the water birds
And the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses.
And I rose in rainy autumn,
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days."
"Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get. It is not possible to hunt the boar Trwyth without Gwyn, the son of Nudd, whom God has placed over all the devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy the present race."
"[My anger] grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree."
"The day she was buried... I said to myself - 'I'll have her in my arms again! If she be cold, I'll think it is this north wind that chills ME; and if she be motionless, it is sleep.'"
"Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales... [when] we chased - with the jawbones of deacons - the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel... it snowed and it snowed."
"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that, for destruction, ice
Is also great,
And would suffice."
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven"
🎨 Gustave Doré #BookWormSat
"[The revelers] died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out.... And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Masque of the Red Death"
🎨 Harry Clarke #BookWormSat
"For what, Merlin? For your ambition? For the great prophet and magician of whom men speak with bated breath and give more worship than they would a king or his high priest? And who is it pays this debt to God for carrying out your plans?"
Mary Stewart, "The Crystal Cave"
🎨 Aubrey Beardsley #BookWormSat
"Yes, the old woman caught her by chance, the same way she took you. Oh, she should never have meddled with a real harpy! Or a real unicorn.... Because the truth melts her magic, always."
"Why, certainly," said Rat. "Get the boat out, and we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the wrong time to call on Toad. Early or late, he's always the same fellow. Always good-tempered, always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!"
Kenneth Grahame, "The Wind in the Willows" #BookWormSat
"I am sorry. I have done you evil, and I cannot undo it."
"No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me with that joy - save one. And I thank you for that part, too. Farewell, good magician."
"At once as far as angels ken, he views
The dismal situation waste and wild:
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great furnace flam’d, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible...."
"With [his son's] intestines, the Aesir bound Loki over the three rocks..., and the fetters became iron. Skadi took a serpent and fastened it over him, so that the venom should drop from the serpent onto his face."
"Lie close," Laura said,
Pricking up her golden head:
"We must not look at goblin men.
We must not buy their fruits.
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry, thirsty roots?"
Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market"
🎨 Dante Gabriel Rossetti #BookWormSat
"If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to th’ welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out."
"One reading by those calm bank-shaded eyes
To watch her lessening westward quietly.
Then, as she neared the bend, her funnel screamed.
And that long lamentation made him wise
How unto Avalon, in agony,
Kings passed in the dark barge, which Merlin dreamed."
"'Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!' - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime....
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning."
"So - here I am in the dark alone;
There's nobody here to see.
I think to myself,
I play to myself,
And nobody knows what I say to myself.
Here I am in the dark alone;
What is it going to be?"