stillness

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscapes on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

—Gray,Thomas

An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.

—Dryden,John

Mr Blawke always reminded me of a heron; I'm not sure why. Something to do with a sense of rapacious stillness, perhaps, and also the aura of one who knows time is on his side.

—Banks, Iain Menzies

On the summit of the precipice and in the deep green woods emotions as palpable and as true have agitated me as if I were surveying them with the blessing of sight. There was an intelligence in the winds of the hills and in the solemn stillness of the buried foliage that could not be misleading. It entered into my heart and I could have wept, notthat Ididnot see, butthat Icould not portrayall I felt.

—Holman,James

And what is time but shadows that were cast By these storm-sculptured stones while centuries fled? The stones remain; their stillness can outlast The skies of history hurrying overhead.

—Sassoon, Siegfried Louvain

I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos.

—Bellow, Saul

Alone† The word is life endured and known. It is the stillness where our spirits walk And all but inmost faith is overthrown.

—Sassoon, Siegfried Louvain

You who desired so muchöin vain to askö Yet fed your hunger like an endless task, Dared dignify the labor, bless the questö Achieved that stillness ultimately best, Being, of all, least sought for: Emily, hear!

—Crane, (Harold) Hart