Signature Lines--Why'd You Pick Yours?

Phoenix, What was the quote?

vivien, What's the title of the poem, and who's the poet?

farmerman, Fresh hypocrisy will never be in short supply.

drom, Who wrote The Companion?

neo, Al makes a good point.

Walter, How about a translation for those of us Latinly challenged.

Seal, Keep them seal poems coming.

Piffka, You changed your signature after you wrote your post. You refer to the Bible, but the line is from Melville. :-)

bi-polar, And why not?

gus, Another signature auteur.

Slappy, And what better reason could there be?

Husker, Okey dokey.

Ceili, Your signature line made me stop and think too.

Montana, I like your delicate, genteel approach to fund-raising. :-) "Hey you! Come here! Yeah, I'm talking to you!'

Misti, A true believer.

I changed mine for the first time a couple of days ago. I may change it a few more times to include a few more of my mother's more memorable quotes. Then I'll probably revert to the Robert Burns Giftie gie us quote. It's one I love and truly believe in.

Roberta -- I change my signature line often, there are so many great quotations. Here are some of the signature lines I have used; ones I saved when I realized that otherwise they'd be lost in the ephemeral nature of the web. (How can anyone not love that Rupert Brooke?)

I am waylaid by Beauty. Who will walk
Between me and the crying of the frogs?
from Second April - ESVM

A little dog danced. And the day began." Rupert Brooke

"...I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars." D.Thomas

I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant than the wind. -- W.S

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
-- Wendell Berry.

"There is no greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself. He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."
from Dao De Jing, #46

The sea is calm to-night,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits...
-- Matthew Arnold

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
--from The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats

But in your day this moment is the sun
Upon a hill, after the sun has set.
EStVM

When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white...
WS

Only until this cigarette is ended,
A little moment at the end of all....
ESVM

I'll keep a little tavern
Below the high hill's crest...
ESVM

Bless'd is the man in whose sequester'd glade,
Some ancient abbey's walls diffuse their shade;
R.P. Knight "The Landscape" 1794

A thousand thoughts of tender vague regret
Crowd on my soul...
Chisato - 9th Century

There is something Pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything. --George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

There is no greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself.
DDJ.46

Hugged by the woods and kissed by the sea!
Where is the Eden like to thee?
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Emily Dickinson got so drunk on dew that she was reeling around and the angels were hanging over the edge of heaven and waving their snowy hats. It's one of her lesser known poems." - Nelson Bentley

"Funny, I don't remember being absentminded!"

No earthly enterprise will cloud this vision; so beware... EStVM

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. N.Mandela

The rain is falling through the mist...
B.Bramlett, E.Clapton

It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't. W.S.

And I upon the floor will lie
And think how bad I've been.
from "The Penitent" - Millay

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness did not perceive it.
KJV

The innocent if lawless elf...
Theirs the spiced tears that overbrim,
And theirs the dimple and the lightsome whim.
from OF RAMA, by Melville

Vivien, Thanks for the poem. I like it a lot. But, no, not exactly a cheerer-upper.

Piffka, Thanks for all those wonderful quotations. You may have inspired me to try a variety of signature lines. But first I have to finish the quotes of my mother's that I want to use. Then I'll go to the classics.

Roberta, you can easily just select and drag your old quotations to your profile uhhh, profile (I can't remember what it's called, but it is the big box just above the quotation box on your profile page.) That way they're not lost. You've saved them to take out & admire or even reuse them again. It is quite a nice feature, I think.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your mom's quotations. Let's see 'em!

I picked mine because I like propogating the truth

Hey Roberta; it was Yevtushenko who wrote 'The Companion (he wrote Babii Yar as well);' looking at the whole of the poem, it's not the best that was ever written, but I think that the last five lines are brilliant. It's a hard thing to choose, a favourite quote.

I like your mom's quotations too...

There is a book of quotes by Mr. Rogers, and while there are some good quotes from him, a quote from someone else that he carried with him struck me. I have to look it up again for the exact wording, but it is something like, "It's impossible to hate anyone once you know their story." Might change to that.

I made mine up -- but I've noticed a similar sentiment attributed to Thomas Jefferson -- that someone else uses.

I like mine because it captures the essence of my personal phlosophy.

DAMMIT! I'm good looking enough to be gay! What do I have to do to prove....wait. Nevermind.

Thanks, drom. Dem Russians could write!

Piffka, Thanks for the info. Okay, I changed mother quotes.

Soz, Not surprising that Mr. Rogers would feel that way. I believe he was a truly good man.

Frank, I whole-heartedly agree with your signature line. I've never understood why people are reluctant to say they don't know something.

Gautam, So a guy looks in the mirror, doesn't like what he sees, and figures he's straight. Interesting perspective.

Slappy, You mean to tell me that your avatar isn't a photo of you? Quelle shock.

...and a good quote it is! What a character, Roberta!

I chose mine because people are so uptight these days and all they really need to do is sit back and have a banana or two.
It gives me the feeling that everything is taken care of.
That, and I really like dispatch.

I chose mine because it was funny.

What is yours?

Individual, And what can be more mind-easing than a banana.

Twisted ferret, I'm impressed that your signature line matches your avatar. Tres chic.

I've reverted to my old signature line. I considered many others, but this is the one for me.

I change mine after a line in a book I am reading strikes my fancy. The reasons change. The one I have now is there because the one I wanted from the same author, Nuala O'Faolain, was too long. I'll type that one out again here. It's not the weightiest sentence in the world, but I liked it.

"The laptop's Delete function was so different from the old typewritten sheets with their rows of X's - reminders of each word and phrase that had been laboriously thought better of - that language itself seemed a refreshed medium now. Words swam into their place, where before they were cemented in."

The one I have now just reads as about myself as well as her. N o'F and I haven't had the exact same experiences in life, but many of her reflections seem to me as if I am writing them.

I like to change mine often... here's the newest, a whine because of the weather.

Roberta -- Yours is a good thought, I'm not complaining. I have always liked Bobbie Burns.

Osso -- Y'know, I was thinking about that just today! It is true that when you typed and then xx'ed out the words, they were still there and not lost the way they are with word processing software. Ephemeral words, you flee and are no more.

Osso, I love thinking about the lines of x's. Great quote. Too bad it doesn't fit.

Piffka, No matter how many things I think of to use as a signature line, nothing fills the bill for me more than this line. It speaks volumes to our sense of self. Our perception of ourselves and the world around us. Burns is one of my favorite poets. He was from the first poem of his I read in college. Sometimes you make a connection, and sometimes you don't.

Well, he was a Scotsman; they're always special.