QuoteProject
When they turned off, it was still early in the pink and green fields. The fumes of morning, sweet and bitter, sprang up where they walked. The insects ticked softly, their strength in reserve; butterflies chopped the air, going to the east, and the birds flew carelessly and sang by fits and starts, not the way they did in the evening in sustained and drowsy songs.
Eudora Welty
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote captures the serene beauty of a morning landscape filled with nature's sounds and sights.

Eudora Welty's quote paints a vivid picture of a tranquil morning in nature, emphasizing the subtle contrasts and gentle life of the surroundings. The imagery of 'pink and green fields' alongside 'sweet and bitter' morning fumes illustrates the richness of life that can be experienced in the early hours, where everything is fresh and alive, yet also transient. The delicate descriptions of insects, butterflies, and birds evoke a sense of peace and a moment of stillness that one can find in nature, inviting reflection on the beauty of life around us.

Themes

NatureMorningTranquilityBeautySerenity

In practice

Example use cases

Sharing this quote during a nature retreat can inspire participants to appreciate the small details of their surroundings.

More from Eudora Welty

Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers . . . great talkers.
Eudora WeltyRead
Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.
Eudora WeltyRead
A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.
Eudora WeltyRead
For the source of the short story is usually lyrical. And all writers speak from, and speak to, emotions eternally the same in all of us: love, pity, terror do not show favorites or leave any of us out.
Eudora WeltyRead
The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.
Eudora WeltyRead
The first act of insight is throw away the labels. In fiction, while we do not necessarily write about ourselves, we write out of ourselves, using ourselves; what we learn from, what we are sensitive to, what we feel strongly about--these become our characters and go to make our plots. Characters in fiction are conceived from within, and they have, accordingly, their own interior life; they are individuals every time.
Eudora WeltyRead

Similar quotes

Of all wonders, this is among the greatest, that some fresh waters close by the sea spring forth as out of pipes: for the nature of the waters also ceaseth not from miraculous properties.
Pliny The ElderRead
Our kinship with Earth must be maintained; otherwise, we will find ourselves trapped in the center of our own paved-over souls with no way out.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Aldo LeopoldRead
My work is the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird - equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Mary OliverRead
Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. The shallow-minded modern who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered what is important.
Aldo LeopoldRead
The more separated we become from the Earth, the more hostile we become to the feminine. We disown our passion, our creativity, and our sexuality. Eventually the Earth itself becomes a baneful place. I remember being told by a medicine woman in the Amazon, “Do you know why they are really cutting down the rain forest? Because it is wet and dark and tangled and feminine.
Alberto VilloldoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.