American novelist & poet (1869-1954)
There are horrors out here—far worse than the horrors on earth.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
Even a cricket knows the difference between a man and an angel; For a man looks not at the ground whereon he walks, he crushes many a life; While the passing of an angel leaves all the world a-thrill.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Give me to drink the poison of thy breast--
Dark cruel wine from grapes of passion pressed--
Till I am drunk beyond delirium's dream
In that dim utter deep where men may rest.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
I lie alone under the mocking sky.
The midnight hours indifferently walk by.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Immortal love is fearless, and leaves the key of its door on the outside.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
It is a long road that leads to eternity, and the inns for travelers are few.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
The hospitality of the universe is famous among the comets;
There is always an extra plate for the late-comer and a flower for his buttonhole.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
an end; He smiles in His sleep sometimes, and men know the Golden Age; sometimes He is restless, too, and the revolutions come. Will the Dreamer never awake? Who knows! I would hold Him sleeping; For if He should rise from His nest on the down of eternity, He might rub His drowsy eyes -- and I should forget to be.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I have never given my soul to the keeping of an earthly body,
And so I can sing at all times and seasons.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I will give you a charm against sorrow: smile at the kisses of Pain.
She is a sensitive lover and likes not to be flouted.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
He who remembers, sees; and he who sees, can fly.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I met one man who refused to speak of the earth, and was always talking about "going on." I reminded him that if he went on far enough he would come back to the place from which he started.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
I saw a bird on a bough and wondered if he were dreaming. And then another came; the two sat long together and not a note they sang. The sun went down in the west, and the shadows wrapt their veils around the shivering earth; the moon arose behind the mountains, the full-faced harvest moon that turns all things to magic. The two birds on the bough were dark against the moon's gold face. And still no note they sang—their silence thrilled the world. And I forgot the meadows and the hills, the trees and the golden harvest; for I knew that those two dreaming birds were the heart of a miracle.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
If we could only remember in life that the form which we call ourselves is not our real immortal self at all, we would not give it such an exaggerated importance, though we would nevertheless take needful care of it.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
I am strong to-day, because I have been long with one who is stronger.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
The Rose of Life to us reveals
Her hidden petals without shame,
For in our questing faith she feels
The love that melts the seven seals
Of the Eternal Name.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
Time's hidden ways thine eyes reveal to me:
Deep in their vision broods the memory
Of all the myriad lives thy soul has known,
Thou passionate pilgrim of eternity!
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
I have followed Silence from the belt of Orion to Berenice's curls -- then lost it in the laughter of my soul.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
So still is Love he hears the farthest sound:
The footfall of the seasons in their round,
The soft etheric swish of the rushing spheres,
The murmur of the mute things underground.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Those people who think of their departed friends as being all-wise, how disappointed they would be if they could know that the life on this side is only an extension of the life on earth! If the thoughts and desires there have been only for material pleasures, the thoughts and desires here are likely to be the same.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man