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The Colossus and Other Poems QUOTES

The Colossus and Other Poems QUOTES

1 " My hours are married to shadow. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

2 " Love is the bone and sinew of my curse.

--from "Poem For A Birthday - The Stones", written 1959 "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

3 " And round her house she set
Such a barricade of barb and check
Against mutinous weather
As no mere insurgent man could hope to break
With curse, fist, threat
Or love, either "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

4 " We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

5 " Day now, night now, at head, side, feet,
They stand their vigil in gowns of stone,
Faces blank as the day I was born,
Their shadows long in the setting sun
That never brightens or goes down.
And this is the kingdom you bore me to,
Mother, mother. But no frown of mine
Will betray the company I keep. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

6 " Speak in sign language of a lost otherworld, A world we lose by merely waking up. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

7 " The great bronze gate began to crack,
The sea broke in at every crack,
Pellmell, blueblack. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

8 " What happens between us Happens in darkness, vanishes Easy and often as each breath. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

9 " Tireless, tied, as a moon-bound sea Moves "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

10 " The figs on the fig tree in the yard are green; Green, also, the grapes on the green vine Shading the brickred porch tiles. The money’s run out. How nature, sensing this, compounds her bitters. Ungifted, ungrieved, our leavetaking. The sun shines on unripe corn. Cats play in the stalks. Retrospect shall not soften such penury— Sun’s brass, the moon’s steely patinas, The leaden slag of the world— But always expose The scraggy rock spit shielding the town’s blue bay Against "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

11 " Farther out, the waves will be mouthing icecakes— A poor month for park-sleepers and lovers. Even our shadows are blue with cold. We wanted to see the sun come up And are met, instead, by this iceribbed ship, Bearded and blown, an albatross of frost, Relic of tough weather, every winch and stay Encased in a glassy pellicle. The "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

12 " the incessant seethe of grasses "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

13 " The Stones This is the city where men are mended. I lie on a great anvil. The flat blue sky-circle Flew off like the hat of a doll When I fell out of the light. I entered The stomach of indifference, the wordless cupboard. The mother of pestles diminished me. I became a still pebble. The stones of the belly were peaceable, The head-stone quiet, jostled by nothing. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

14 " Only the mouth-hole piped out, Importunate cricket In a quarry of silences. The people of the city heard it. They hunted the stones, taciturn and separate, The mouth-hole crying their locations. Drunk as a fetus I suck at the paps of darkness. The food tubes embrace me. Sponges kiss my lichens away. The jewelmaster drives his chisel to pry Open one stone eye. This is the after-hell: I see the light. A wind unstoppers the chamber "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

15 " Of the ear, old worrier. Water mollifies the flint lip, And daylight lays its sameness on the wall. The grafters are cheerful, Heating the pincers, hoisting the delicate hammers. A current agitates the wires Volt upon volt. Catgut stitches my fissures. A workman walks by carrying a pink torso. The storerooms are full of hearts. This is the city of spare parts. My swaddled legs and arms smell sweet as rubber. Here they can doctor heads, or any limb. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

16 " On Fridays the little children come To trade their hooks for hands. Dead men leave eyes for others. Love is the uniform of my bald nurse. Love is the bone and sinew of my curse. The vase, reconstructed, houses The elusive rose. Ten fingers shape a bowl for shadows. My mendings itch. There is nothing to do. I shall be good as new. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

17 " The sun will diminish it soon enough:
Each wave-tip glitters like a knife. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

18 " Your shelled bed I remember. Father, this thick air is murderous. I would breathe water. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

19 " But no frown of mine Will betray the company I keep. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems

20 " And round her house she set Such a barricade of barb and check Against mutinous weather As no mere insurgent man could hope to break With curse, fist, threat Or love, either. "

― Sylvia Plath , The Colossus and Other Poems