"It was not death, for I stood up,And all the dead lie down;It was not night, for all the bellsPut out their tongues, for noon.It was not frost, for on my fleshI felt siroccos crawl,Nor fire, for just my marble feetCould keep a chancel cool.And yet it tasted like them all;The figures I have seenSet orderly, for burial,Reminded me of mine,As if my life were shavenAnd fitted to a frame,And could not breathe without a key;And I was like midnight, some,When everything that ticked has stopped,And space stares, all around,Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,Repeal the beating ground.But most like chaos,--stopless, cool,Without a chance or spar,--Or even a report of landTo justify despair."

Grief, Death, Despair, Chaos, Emotion

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"It was not death, for I stood up,And all the dead lie down;It was not night, for all the bellsPut out their tongues, for noon.It was not frost, for on my fleshI felt siroccos crawl,Nor fire, for just my marble feetCould keep a chancel cool.And yet it tasted like them all;The figures I have seenSet orderly, for burial,Reminded me of mine,As if my life were shavenAnd fitted to a frame,And could not breathe without a key;And I was like midnight, some,When everything that ticked has stopped,And space stares, all around,Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,Repeal the beating ground.But most like chaos,--stopless, cool,Without a chance or spar,--Or even a report of landTo justify despair."

Exlpore more Grief quotes

"Grief does not change you. It reveals you."

John Green, American Author

Grief, Revelation, Change, Emotion

"Misery is a river of tears that whispers my name in a constant hiss."

Richelle E. Goodrich, American Poet

Grief, Sadness, Truth, Regret, Inspirational

"People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura oflife which bears no relation to true immortality but through which theycontinue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. Itis as though they were traveling abroad."

Marcel Proust, French Author

Grief, Memory, Death, Presence

"All winter the acorns and red Maple leaf moldered in silence - in the same way grief is gnawing at me - slowly, imperceptibly... consuming..."

John Geddes, Canadian Author

Grief, Silence, Decay, Emotion

"For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear."

Lord Byron, British Poet

Grief, Nothing, Past

"The relatives of a suicide always take it in bad part that he did not remain alive out of consideration for the family dignity."

Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

Grief, Suicide, Family, Dignity, Loss

"There are all sorts of losses people suffer - from the small to the large. You can lose your keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your head, you can lose your heart, you can lose your mind. You can relinquish your home to move into assisted living, or have a child move overseas, or see a spouse vanish into dementia. Loss is more than just death, and grief is the gray shape-shifter of emotion."

Jodi Picoult, American Novelist

Grief, Loss, Life, Change

"We resent the thought that anything can please us when someone we love is no longer here to share the pleasure with us, and we almost feel as if we were unfaithful to our sorrow when we find out interest in life returning to us."

L. M. Montgomery, Canadian Author

Grief, Loss, Love, Guilt

"I called Isaac, who cursed life and the universe and God Himself and who said where are the goddamned trophies to break when you need them, and then I realized there was no one else to call, which was the saddest thing. The only person I really wanted to talk to about Augustus Waters's death was Augustus Waters."

John Green, American Author

Grief, Death, Friendship, Loneliness

"Was there a language of loss? Did everyone who suffered speak a different dialect?"

Jodi Picoult, American Novelist

Grief, Loss, Language, Suffering, Communication

Explore more quotes by Emily Dickinson

"If you were coming in the Fall, I'd brush the Summer by With half a smile and half a spurn, As Housewives do a Fly. If I could see you in a year, I'd wind the months in balls -And put them each in separate Drawers, For fear the numbers fuse -If only Centuries, delayed, I'd count them on my Hand, Subtracting, till my fingers dropped Into Van Diemen's land. If certain, when this life was out, That yours and mine should be, I 'd toss it yonder like a rind, And taste eternity. But, now, uncertain of the length Of this, that is between, It goads me, like the Goblin Bee, That will not state - its sting."

Time

"Water is taught by thirst;Land, by the oceans passed;Transport, by throe;Peace, by its battles told;Love, by memorial mould;Birds, by the snow."

Nature

"A great hope fellYou heard no noiseThe ruin was within."

Hope

"Impossibility, like wineExhilarates the manWho tastes it; PossibilityIs flavoreless."

Possibility

"The career of flowers differs from ours only in inaudibleness. I feel more reverence as I grow for these mute creatures whose suspense or transport may surpass my own."

Nature

"Or help one fainting RobinUnto his Nest againI shall not live in vain."

Compassion

"I have no life but this, To lead it here; Nor any death, but lest Dispelled from there; Nor tie to earths to come, Nor action new, Except through this extent, The realm of you."

Poetry

"A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think."

Art

"Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought."

Age

"We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps believing nimble."

Belief