Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Murrywas a prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. At 19, Mansfield left New Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom, where she became a friend of modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. In 1917 she was diagnosed with extrapulmonary tuberculosis, which led to her death at the age of 34...
NationalityNew Zealander
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth14 October 1888
wall memories spring
All the wild sweetness of the flower Tangled against the wall. It was that magic, silent hour.... The branches grew so tall They twined themselves into a bower. The sun shown ... and the fall Of yellow blossom on the grass! You feel that golden rain? Both of you could not hold, alas, (both of you tried, in vain) A memory, stranger. So I pass.... It will not come again.
laughter spring clouds
The fields are snowbound no longer; There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green. The snow has been caught up into the sky- So many white clouds-and the blue of the sky is cold. Now the sun walks in the forest, He touches the bows and stems with his golden fingers; They shiver, and wake from slumber. Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls. Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears.... A wind dances over the fields. Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter, Yet the little blue lakes tremble And the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver.
fine further gets hand rare warming
E. M. Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot. He's a rare fine hand at that. Feel this teapot. Is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain't going to be no tea.
accept life suffering
Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change. So suffering must become Love. That is the mystery.
asking friend future hope present share treating
I am treating you as my friend asking you share my present minuses in the hope I can ask you to share my future pluses.
alone beneath lower mask prepared terrible until yes
It's a terrible thing to be alone -- yes it is -- it is -- but don't lower your mask until you have another mask prepared beneath --as terrible as you like --but a mask.
arms brief letter moment
This is not a letter but my arms around you for a brief moment
begin failures immense importance means
When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.
becomes life
Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.
best delight infinite work
To work -- to work! It is such infinite delight to know that we still have the best things to do.
appalling build good regret waste
Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.
ask asking friend future hope present share treating
I'm treating you as a friend asking you to share my present minuses in the hope that I can ask you to share my future pluses
friendship sacred truth-is
The truth is friendship is every bit as sacred and eternal as marriage.
mad unhappy wish
What is it with me? Am I absolutely nobody, but merely inordinately vain? I do not know…. But I am most fearfully unhappy. That is all. I am so unhappy that I wish I was dead—yet I should be mad to die when I have not yet lived at all.