Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
The sky lay over the city like a map showing the strata of things and the big full moon toppled over in a furrow like the abandoned wheel of a gun carriage on a sunset field of battle and the shadows walked like cats and I looked into the white and ghostly interior of things and thought of you and I looked on their structural outsides and thought of you and was lonesome.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the interconnectedness of emotions and the physical world, revealing a deep sense of loneliness and contemplation.
Zelda Fitzgerald's quote intricately weaves together imagery of the cityscape and nature, evoking a sense of longing and introspection. As the speaker observes the sky, moon, and shadows, they are reminded of a significant other, highlighting how external elements can resonate profoundly with internal feelings. The metaphor of the moon and the abandoned gun carriage suggests a juxtaposition between beauty and desolation, emphasizing the complexity of emotions associated with love and loneliness.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a poetry reading, this quote could be used to evoke feelings of nostalgia and loneliness among the audience.
More from Zelda Fitzgerald
All quotes →She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring.
The night you gave me my birthday party... you were a young Lieutenant and I was a fragrant phantom, wasn't I? And it was a radiant night, a night of soft conspiracy and the trees agreed that it was all going to be for the best.
A southern moon is a sodden moon, and sultry. When it swamps the fields and the rustling sandy roads and the sticky honeysuckle hedges in its sweet stagnation, your fight to hold on to reality is like a protestation against a first waft of ether.
There seemed to be some heavenly support beneath his shoulder blades that lifted his feet from the ground in ecstatic suspension, as if he secretly enjoyed the ability to fly but was walking as a compromise to convention.
I remember every single spot of light that ever gouged a shadow beside your bones.
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