a prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.

I’ve become a bit obsessed lately with a few things: the UK artist Banksy, the Japanese artist (who collaborated with Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton a few years back and has a show at a museum here in LA) called Takashi Murakami (thanks to another diarist who pointed me in the right direction). But I’m me. An I have “five minute obsessions. And they’re in full effect. (more on Banksy and Murakami at another time perhaps)

It started out with the quote “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages” by Tennessee Williams.

Originally I think I attributed the quote to Tennyson. But in doing so I became quite ‘obsessed’ with the story of Pierre Abélard and Héloïse (through various links or channels, not sure how I ended up there!). Which is considered to be one of the most legendary love stories of our time and I was surprised I didn’t know of it. It was almost like something out of a movie, but it actually happened.

And from studying up on that obsession, I found Albert Pope’s poem entitled: “Eloisa to Abelard”, which is based on the aforementioned love story and takes the form of Héloïse’s point of view.

I won’t bore you with the whole love affair story but here’s a bit of an explanation for Pope’s poem:

“In Pope’s poem, Eloisa is in anguish over the powerful, almost orgasmic, sexual feelings she still has for Abélard, especially in her dreams, and by the realization that, now a eunuch — something he regards as a mercy that freed him from the “contagion of carnal impurity,” — he could not return her feelings even if he wanted to; and so she begs, not for forgiveness, but for forgetfulness.

And that poem contained one of my favorite verses or stanzas or whatever they are because of the movie that I love so much (which will become clear once you read the lines)

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d …

And somehow I figured out last night that there are a few quotes/phrases/verses that I LOVE and the above being one of them and the Tennessee William’s one I mentioned being one as well. So that’s my obsession right now.

And because I … want to, I shall share with you some other quotes from Mr. Williams that I love as well. (Although “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages” is still aces above all)

Stars next to the ones I love best.

——————–

Death is one moment, and life is so many of them.
Tennessee Williams

* Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know you’re dead.
Tennessee Williams

Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.
Tennessee Williams

*** For time is the longest distance between two places.
Tennessee Williams

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.
Tennessee Williams

** In memory everything seems to happen to music.
Tennessee Williams

* Life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.
Tennessee Williams

Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.
Tennessee Williams

* Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
Tennessee Williams

Success and failure are equally disastrous.
Tennessee Williams

*** There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.
Tennessee Williams

To be free is to have achieved your life.
Tennessee Williams

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.
Tennessee Williams

Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.
Tennessee Williams

oh, and these from another site (obviously some are not direct quotes from the man himself but lines he has written. doesn’t make a difference to me.)

At the age of fourteen I discovered writing as an escape from a world of reality in which I felt acutely uncomfortable.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Forward to Sweet Bird of Youth

Caged birds accept each other but flight is what they long for.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Camino Real

I think that hate is a thing, a feeling, that can only exist where there is no understanding.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Forward to Sweet Bird of Youth

Guilt is universal.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Forward to Sweet Bird of Youth

There is a time for departure, even when there is no certain place to go.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Camino Real

————————————

oh, and in regaling eric with my findings and obsessions he told me about a passage from The Great Gatsby that always stuck with him, that I now love, as well:

“But he knew that he was in Daisy’s house by a colossal accident. However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders. So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously– eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand.”

oh and then i found this Gatsby quote on my own and i love it:

“It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.”

so.

That’s all I have tonight. I must obsess and learn all I can about this man, his words, which, though somewhat simplistic, really hit home for me and are ridiculously spot on, I find. Plus, he led a fascinating, often hard, life. And that is intriguing

And then there’s the whole delving into the Pierre Abélard and Héloïse story.

Just wanted to share my favorite new obsession/favorite new quote, which I did, in the first paragraph.

And I’m off.

ps, if you have a quote that “speaks” to you, feel free to leave it in a note if you want. as long as it’s not ridiculously common, like the “dance like no one’s watching, love like you’ve never been hurt” one. which is lovely. but there are some quotes out there – “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”, being one of them – that i think everyone knows. so if you have one that you think is not often heard or unique, i’m all ears.

or you can just tell me that you’re loving Tennessee Williams now too and this (fill in the blank) is your fave.

or whatever. 🙂