Author: Tasha Alexander

Cites

• Christopher Marlowe (1)
  • IN: Tears of Pearl (2009) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I fain would go, yet beauty calls me back. To leave her so and not once say farewell were to transgress against all laws of love, But if I use such ceremonious thanks As parting friends accustom on the shore, Her silver arms will coil round about And tears of peal cry, 'Stay, Aeneas, stay.' Each word she says will then contain a crown, And every speech be ended with a kiss. I may not 'dure this female drudgery. To sea, Aeneas! FInd out Italy!
    FROM: Dido, Queen of Carthage, (1594), Play, UK
• Antisthenes (1)
  • IN: A Crimson Warning (2011) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, Greece
• Aristotle (1)
  • IN: Dangerous to Know (2010) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, Greece
• John Keats (2)
  • IN: And Only to Deceive (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
    FROM: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, (1816), Poem, UK
  • IN: And Only To Deceive (2005) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deepbrow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes He star'dat the Pacific - and all his men Look'd at each other with a warm surmise - Silent, upon a peak in Darien
    FROM: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, (1816), Poem, UK
• W. H. Auden (1)
  • IN: A Poisoned Season (2007) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end, The delicious story is ripe to tell to the intimate friend; Over the tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire; Still waters run deep, my dear, there's never smoke without fire. Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links, Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks, Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye. For the clear voice suddenly singing, high up in the convent wall, The scent of the elder bushes, the sporting prints in the hall, The croquet matches in summer, the handshake, the cough, the kiss, There is always a wicked secret, a private reason for this.
    FROM: At Last the Secret is Out, (None), Poem, England/US
• Oscar Wilde (1)
  • IN: A Fatal Waltz (2008) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.
    FROM: The Picture of Dorian Gray, (1890), Novel, Ireland
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1)
  • IN: Behind the Shattered Glass (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: i dared to rest, or wander, - like a rest Made sweeter for the step upon the grass, - And view the ground's most gentle dimplement, (As if God's finger touched but did not press In making England!) such an up and down Of verdure, - nothing too much up or down, A ripple of land; such little hills, the sky Can stoop to tenderly and the wheatfields climb; Such nooks of valleys, lined with orchises, Fed full of noises by invisible streams; And open pastures, where you scarely tell White daisies from white dew, - at intervals The mythic oaks and elm-trees standing out Self-poised upon their prodigy of shade, - I thought my father's land was worthy too Of being my Shakespeare's.
    FROM: Aurora Leigh, (1856), Poem, UK
• Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (trans. C. E. Turner) (1)
  • IN: Death in St. Petersburg (2017) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I love thee, work of Peter's hand! I love thy stern, symmetric form; The Neva's calm and queenly flow Betwixt her quays of granite-stone, With iron tracings richly wrought; Thy nights so soft with pensive thought, Their moonless glow, in bright obscure, When I alone, in cosy room, Or write or read, night's lamp unlit; The sleeping piles that clear stand out In lonely streets, and needle bright, That crowns the Admiralty's spire; When, chasing far the shades of night, In cloudless sky of golden pure, Dawn quick usurps the pale twilight, And brings to end her half-hour reign. I love thy winters bleak and harsh; Thy stirless air fast bound by frosts; The flight of sledge o'er Neva wide, That glows the cheeks of maidens gay. I love the noise and chat of balls ; A banquet free from wife's control, Where goblets foam, and bright blue flame Darts round the brimming punch-bowl's edge. I love to watch the martial troops The spacious Field of Mars fast scour; The squadrons spruce of foot and horse; The nicely chosen race of steeds, As gaily housed they stand in line, Whilst o'er them float the tattered flags; The gleaming helmets of the men That bear the marks of battle-shot. I love thee, when with pomp of war The cannons roar from fortress-tower; When Empress-Queen of all the North Hath given birth to royal heir ; Or when the people celebrate Some conquest fresh on battle-field; Or when her bonds of ice once more The Neva, rushing free, upheaves, The herald sure of spring's rebirth. Fair city of the hero, hail!
    FROM: The Bronze Horseman: A Petersburg Story, (1833), Poem, Russia