But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind. — Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 25, 2017) Originally published 1985.
How sad and bad and mad it was— But then, how it was sweet! — Robert Browning, from “Confessions,” The Poems of Browning: Volume Four: 1862 – 1871. Edited by John Woolford, Daniel Karlin, & Joseph Phelan. (Routledge May 12th 2014)
you do not know my face, as if I’m a flower, blind, my petals pursed; so, here and there your lips brush, till I grow aware of want and burst wide open. — Robert Browning, from “In a Gondola,” The Oxford book of English verse, 1250–1900. Edited by A. T. Quiller-Couch. Oxford: Clarendon, 1919, [c1901]
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” ― Robert Browning, from “Andrea del Sarto,” Men and Women and Other Poems. (Orion Publishing Group, Ltd. October 15, 1993) Originally published 1855.
The Vale of Soul-Making 