Quotes from James Elroy Flecker

And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin.

Half to forget the wandering and pain, Half to remember days that have gone by, And dream and dream that I am home again!

But have you wine and music still,And statues and a bright-eyed love,And foolish thoughts of good and ill,And prayers to them who sit above?

For lust of knowing what should not be known, we take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

I look down the farthest side of the mountain, fulfilled and understanding all, and truly content that I lived a full life and one that was my own choice

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go Always a little further; it may be Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow  Across that angry or that glimmering sea,  White on a throne or guarded in a cave  There lies a prophet who can understand Why men were born: but surely we are brave, Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, Student of our sweet English tongue, Read out my words at night, alone: I was a poet, I was young. Since I can never see your face, And never shake you by the hand, I send my soul through time and space To greet you. You will understand.

We travel not for trafficking alone; By hotter winds our hearts are fanned: For lust of knowing what should not be known We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

We men of this age are rotten with book-lore and with a yearning for the past.

Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing. Have you heard That silence where the birds are dead yet something pipeth like a bird?

Thy impudence has a monstrous beauty, like the hindquarters of an elephant.

The poet's business is not to save the soul of man but to make it worth saving.