James Elroy Flecker

James Elroy Flecker (circa 1905)

James Elroy Flecker (November 5 1884 – January 3 1915) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. As a poet he was most influenced by the Parnassian poets.

Quotes

• I care not if you bridge the seas,
     Or ride secure the cruel sky,
  Or build consummate palaces
     Of metal or of masonry.
  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?
  • "To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence", ll. 5-12. Forty-two Poems (1911)

• 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.
  • "To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence", ll. 17-20. Forty-two Poems (1911)

• West of these out to seas colder than the Hebrides
       I must go
     Where the fleet of stars is anchored and the young
       Star captains glow.
  • "The Dying Patriot", st. 3. The English Review (Sept. 1911) p. 189

• We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage:
     And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die,
  We Poets of the proud old lineage
     Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why.
  • The Golden Journey to Samarkand (1913) Prologue

• When even lovers find their peace at last,
  And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.
  • The Golden Journey to Samarkand (1913) Prologue

• When the great markets by the sea shut fast
  All that calm Sunday that goes on and on:
  When even lovers find their peace at last,
  And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.
  • The Golden Journey to Samarkand (1913)

• I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep.
  • "The Old Ships", l. 1. The Old Ships (1915)

• A ship, an isle, a sickle moon —
  With few but with how splendid stars.
  • "A Ship, An Isle, A Sickle Moon", l. 1. Collected Poems, ed. J. C. Squire (1916)

• The poet's business is not to save the soul of man but to make it worth saving.
  • Quoted in Louis Untermeyer, Modern British Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920)

Hassan (1922)

The Story of Hassan of Bagdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand

• And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin.
  • Act 1, sc. 2 (Hassan)

• The hour that dreams are brighter and winds colder,
  The hour that young love wakes on a white shoulder,
  O Master of the world, the Persian Dawn.
  That hour, O Master, shall be bright for thee:
  Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea,
  The braves who fight thy war unsheathe the sabre,
  The slaves who work thy mines are lashed to labour,
  For thee the waggons of the world are drawn—
  The ebony of night, the red of dawn!
  • Act 2, sc. 2

    Cf. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969 film)

• 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.
  • Act 5, sc. 2
  • Variant: "Who make the Golden Journey to Samarkand."

    Cf. George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman at the Charge (1973)

External links

• Works by James Elroy Flecker at Project Gutenberg
• Comment and images relating to Flecker's The Golden Journey ('Road') to Samarkand