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
All creatures must learn to coexist. That's why the brown bear and the field mouse can share their lives in harmony. Of course, they can't mate or the mice would explode.
Betty WhiteRead
I'm not an animal lover if that means you think things are nice if you can pat them, but I am intoxicated by animals.
David AttenboroughRead
There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and the mercy of God to the whole world.
Billy GrahamRead
October is nature's funeral month. Nature glories in death more than in life. The month of departure is more beautiful than the month of coming - October than May. Every green thin loves to die in bright colors.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
The tree is stripped,_x000D_ _x000D_ All color, fragrance gone,_x000D_ _x000D_ Yet already on the bough,_x000D_ _x000D_ Uncaring spring!
IkkyuRead
All the world lies warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent storms, and nearly everything shines from base to summit - the rocks, streams, lakes, glaciers, irised falls, and the forests of silver fir and silver pine.
John MuirRead