Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love.
Carl SandburgRead
The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The sea expresses itself in a raw and unfiltered way that civilized society often ignores or disrespects.
Carl Sandburg's quote reflects on the sea as a symbol of nature's untamed power and the way it communicates in a language that contrasts with human civility. The sea's voice is described as a 'colossal scavenger slang,' suggesting that it reveals truths and realities that polite society chooses to overlook or sanitize, emphasizing a disconnect between human sensibilities and the brutal honesty of the natural world.
Themes
SeaNatureCommunicationPowerHonesty
In practice
Example use cases
During a beach cleanup event, this quote can be shared to highlight the rawness of nature.
More from Carl Sandburg
All quotes βNothing happens... but first a dream.
Carl SandburgRead
Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today. Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction. See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.
Carl SandburgRead
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Carl SandburgRead
There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
Carl SandburgRead
A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
Carl SandburgRead
Similar quotes
I want my body to help fertilize the growth of a cactus or cliff rose or sagebrush or tree.
Edward AbbeyRead
Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
E. O. WilsonRead
After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth...The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her...In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.
Elizabeth George SpeareRead
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back.
HoraceRead
The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with earthy smells, and the grass under foot had a reflection of the blue sky in it.
Willa CatherRead
Nature is probably quite indifferent to the aesthetic preferences of mathematicians.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead