The nearest we have to a Henry James or an Edith Wharton of the East Coast's Wasp upper classes.
quote by Charlotte Curtis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
I'd been brought up on the Upper East Side in a WASP society, which was death on crutches.
quote by Harry Mathews
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Henry James in the Heart of the City
We have a small sculpture of Henry James on our terrace in New York City.
Nothing would surprise him.
The beast in the jungle was what he saw--
Edith Wharton's obfuscating older brother. . .
He fled the demons
of Manhattan
for fear they would devour
his inner ones
(the ones who wrote the books)
& silence the stifled screams
of his protagonists.
To Europe
like a wandering Jew--
WASP that he was--
but with the Jew's
outsider's hunger. . .
face pressed up
to the glass of sex
refusing every passion
but the passion to write
the words grew
more & more complex
& convoluted
until they utterly imprisoned him
in their fairytale brambles.
Language for me
is meant to be
a transparency,
clear water gleaming
under a covered bridge. . .
I love his spiritual sister
because she snatched clarity
from her murky history.
Tormented New Yorkers both,
but she journeyed
to the heart of light--
did he?
She took her friends on one last voyage,
through the isles of Greece
on a yacht chartered with her royalties--
a rich girl proud to be making her own money.
The light of the Middle Sea
was what she sought.
All denizens
of this demonic city caught
between pitch and black
long for the light.
But she found it
in a few of her books. . .
while Henry James
discovered
what he had probably
started with:
that beast, that jungle,
that solipsistic scream.
He did not join her
on that final cruise.
(He was on his own final cruise).
Did he want to?
I would wager yes.
I look back with love and sorrow
at them both--
dear teachers--
but she shines like Miss Liberty
to Emma Lazarus' hordes,
while he gazes within,
always, at his own
impenetrable jungle.
poem by Erica Jong
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
But then again in the East Coast, I think, Tupac, inspired everybody on the East Coast, everybody down south, everybody in the West Coast you know what sayin'.
quote by Bubba Sparxxx
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
My Silent Undoing
my silent undoing
my silent undoing
my silent undoing
my silent undoing
my wasp in a jar
protruding hips
and skull, and spine
ribcage cuts a clear outline
oh, oh
all roped up and pinching in
distorted and disfiguring
oh, oh
my silent undoing
my silent undoing
my wasp in a jar
no photographs around the back
emaciated, iron flat
oh, oh
dehydrated cutting bones
today i'm over 7 stone
oh, oh
my wasp in a jar
my wasp in a jar
my wasp in a jar
twinkle little star
my wasp in a jar.
song performed by by Queen Adreena
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The worst of doing one's duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Jade
THE patient craftsman of the East who made
His undulant dragons of the veined jade,
And wound their sinuous volutes round the whole
Pellucid green redundance of the bowl,
Chiseled his subtle traceries with the same
Keen stone he wrought them in.
Nor praise, nor blame,
Nor gifts the years relinquish or refuse,
But only a grief commensurate with thy soul,
Shall carve it in a shape for gods to use.
poem by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
What's the use of making mysteries? It only makes people want to nose 'em out.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
To be able to look life in the face: that's worth living in a garret for, isn't it?
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
In any really good subject, one has only to probe deep enough to come to tears.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
There are two ways of spreading light to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them and invent others.
quote by Edith Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.
quote by Edith Newbold Jones Wharton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!