Marjorie Allen Seiffert

Name: A Woman of Thirty
Author: Marjorie Allen Seiffert

A Woman of Thirty

Summary

“A Woman of Thirty”, is a work by Marjorie Allen Seiffert. It explores elements such as unfulfilment, wind and sky.

Quotes from A Woman of Thirty (Marjorie Allen Seiffert)

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ With more beauty and passion than it can hold,
Little flaming rose,
The spring's red blossoms, when winter lies deep
On a wind-swept world
Of tossing branches, lie safely asleep
In brown buds curled.
They wake—and the wind strips their petals away
And spills them afar—
Can I keep you from blooming, whatever I say,
Wild bud that you are!
The Immortal
Child of a love denied, a dream unborn,
Spirit more brave
Than passion's unfulfilment, wiser than fate—
Nor breast nor grave
As cradle you have known,—
I mourn
That my soul knows its own
Too late! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ And like a memory are the wind-swept chords of night,
And the wide melody of evening sky
Where gleams
A colour like the echo of a horn.
There is a far hill where winds die,
And over the hill lies music yet unborn.
VI Maura lies dead at last,
The body she gave to child and lover
Now feeds flower and tree.
Earth's arms are wide to her. What breast
Offers such gentle sleeping? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Through the night, the same earth-magic moves them
Which swayed those ancient ones, long-dead—
And these, too, lean and drink,
Drink deeply from the river, the flowing river of life.
Slowly they return to the crowds and the brilliant lights,
Dazzled, they look aside, silently climb on the cars.
They cling to the swaying straps, weary, inert, confused.
The lurching ear makes halt—they are thrown in each others' arms—
Alien and unmoved, they sway apart again—
The car moves through the fields and suburbs back to the town. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ I too am a bell
Chiming to the winds,
I too am the wind
Ringing to the hills,
I too am the hills
Singing to the sky.
I too am the sky!
The beloved is returning,
Let the bells ring!
VI. DUSK There is no soul too poor to build a temple
Where it may go apart
And worship darkness.
For out of darkness
Images shine... and fade...
Since now there is no worship nor any music,
Let incense be a curved smile
On lips that remember,
And candles, notes of laughter
In empty dusk.
Above,
A coloured window slowly turns
Black to the night. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ The sun sets, and evening is drowned in electric lights;
Arm-in-arm, they wander under the trees
Everywhere meeting others, wandering arm-in-arm
In the same wistful wonder, seeking they know not what.
Two leave the park and the crowds—The stars shine out,
A river runs at their feet, behind them, a leafy copse,
Away on the other shore, the fields of grain
Lie sleeping peacefully in the starlight. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Rose silent hills against the darkening sky,
Wave upon motionless wave.
The night wind made a mournful sound.
The woman turned: "It is lonely here!
I am afraid!" she said.
He made reply:
"What is there left to lose or save?
What is there left to fear?
Our hearts are empty. Have we not buried our dead?" ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ He waves his arms grotesquely
To make me smile....
Quick, into his arms
With unspent fervour.
Why are the trees all sighing?
Look, whispering birches, if you will,
I and my love embrace!
They do not look,
They do not seem to care...
Embrace me, my beloved!
(Can these by passionate kisses?
They feel so thin and cool
Like mist.)
The birches shiver
As though the night-wind stirred them.
Can we be dead? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Into a silver sky,
Piercing and jubilant is the shape of their flying,
Their beaks are pointed with delight,
Curved sharply with desire,
The passionate direction of their flight,
Clear and high,
Stretches their bodies taut like humming wire.
The cold wind blows into angry patterns the jet-bright
Feathers of their wings,
Their claws curl loosely, safely, about nothingness,
They clasp no things. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ At a storm-haunted world—
Sleet wind caterwauls
Through icy trees,
Which clack their hands at you
Tauntingly.
Why should you leave
Radiator and rubber-plant?
Do people stand at attention to mourn a hero
When they behold
A frozen kitten
In a gutter?
Lolita Now Is Old
Lolita now is old,
She sits in the park, watching the young men pass
And huddles her shawl against the cold.
One night last summer when the moon was red,
Lolita, hearing an old song sung
And amorous laughter down the street
Left her bed—
Lolita thought she was young. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Till I feel your slender arms caress me
Like swallows blown against me
And quickly flown.
II Small flower,
My body is the earth from which you sprang,
But we are more to each other than earth and flower,
Closer, even, than earth and flower,
For the sky in me is one with the sky in you...
My love for you
Is like sunlight shining in a quiet place,
You shall feel my love like soft light
Pouring about you.
III I will not kiss you,
For my kisses are a chain without an end;
Nor take you in my arms,
My arms would smother you against my breast ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ III. SPIRE My wish goes singing upward
Holding a chime of bells
In its heart:
Pigeons know my silent bells,
Winds touch them and wonder.
That they might reach
That high blue—
Till star fingers touch them
Ever so gently—
And drifting clouds
Lay cool cheeks against them—
My wish goes singing upward
Reaching into silence.
IV. PRIEDIEU Beauty passes
But dust is eternal.
Outside the temple
Beauty dies in the wind. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ I remember the sparkling wind on a bright autumn morning,
I let down my hair and danced in the golden gale,
Then chased the wind as the wind chased fallen leaves—
Wind cannot be caught and tamed like a bird.
I touch joy and it crumbles to dust in my fingers. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Which in the troubled, intricate fugue of earth
Is drowned.
IV Maura cannot follow over the hill,
Her youth is landlocked as a hidden pool
Where thirsty love drinks deep,
A shining pool, where lingers
The colour of an unseen golden sky,
A pool where echoes fall asleep. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Embracing cranes and lions, who exist
Seemingly free, yet tangled in that living vine.
And in this chest shall be
Two cubic meters of space
Enough to hold all memory
Of you and me—
And this shall be the place
Where silence shall embrace
Our bodies, and obliterate the trace
Our souls made on the purity
Of night... ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Pale clerks with brilliant neckties, and cheap serge suits,
Steering girls by the arm, clerks, too,
Pretty and slim and smart,
Even to yellow kid boots, laced up behind.
They take the electric cars far into the country,
They descend, gaily chattering, at the Amusement Park.
Under the trees they eat the lunch they have carried—
Salad, sausages, sandwiches, candy, warm beer.
They ride in the roller-coaster, two in a seat,
(Glorious danger! Warm, delicious proximity!)
The unaccustomed beer floods their veins like heady wine,
And smothered youth awakens with shrill screams of joy. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Blackness lurks in corners,
Wind snatches the sparks,
Tongs and poker jangle together
Like the iron bones
Of a man that was hanged.
III. THEY WHO DANCE The feet of dancers
Shine with mirth,
Their hearts are vibrant as bells:
The air flows by them
Divided like water
Cut by a gleaming ship.
Triumphantly their bodies sing,
Their eyes are blind
With music.
They move through threatening ghosts
Feeling them cool as mist
On their brows.
They who dance
Find infinite golden floors
Beneath their feet.
IV. PIANISSIMO I took Night
Into my arms,
Night lay upon my breast. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Your arms are languorous lilies—
There is not a thorn
In all your slender greenness,
And you are sweet to madden buzzing bees!
Fear not, beautiful lady,
A hard, black cricket
Inspects you.
Epitaph
Courage is a sword,
Honour, but a shield... ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ Four lesser lions crouch and malign the cranes,
Cursing and gossiping they shake their manes
While from their long tongues leak
Drops of thin venom as they speak.
The cranes, unmoved, peck grapes and grains
From a huge cornucopia, which rains
A plenteous meal from its antique
Interior (a note quite curiously Greek) . ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Marjorie Allen Seiffert, A Woman of Thirty

“ They leave the car in pairs, the picnic basket's
Rattling dismally, plate and spoon and jar.
The boy takes his girl to her lodgings in awkward silence.
They look askance—"Good-night!"—the front door closes,
Indeed their eyes have not met, since by the river
Those wondrous moments
Linked them to earth and night, not to each other.
IV. INTERLUDE Mountain Trails
(GLACIER PARK, SEPT. '17)
I Night stands in the valley
Her head
Is bound with stars,
While Dawn, a grey-eyed nun
Steals through the silent trees. ”

Marjorie Allen Seiffert

Summary

Quotes from A Woman of Thirty (Marjorie Allen Seiffert)

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