The writer catches the changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind.
Vita Sackville-WestRead
It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears. It is the amber light indicating the end of the great burst of early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking forward to autumn. Not that I have any objection to autumn as a season, full of its own beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil from what the first hint of autumn means.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses melancholy at the arrival of autumn, symbolized by the blooming of phlox, as it signifies the end of summer.
Vita Sackville-West's quote captures the bittersweet feeling that accompanies seasonal change, particularly the transition from the vibrant joy of summer to the more subdued autumn. The blooming of phlox serves as a poignant reminder that while autumn brings its own beauty, it also marks the end of a season that many cherish, evoking a sense of loss and nostalgia for the warmth and brightness of summer days.
Themes
PhloxAutumnSummerSeasonChangeNostalgia
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the passage of time, one might reference this quote to highlight the inevitable changes we all encounter.
More from Vita Sackville-West
All quotes βI loved you when love was Spring, and May, Loved you when summer deepened into June, and now when autumn yellows all the leaves.
Vita Sackville-WestRead
Gardening is a luxury occupation: an ornament, not a necessity, of life.... Fortunate gardener, who may preoccupy himself solely with beauty in these difficult and ugly days! He is one of the few people left in this distressful world to carry on the tradition of elegance and charm. A useless member of society, considered in terms of economics, he must not be denied his rightful place. He deserves to share it, however humbly, with the painter and poet.
Vita Sackville-WestRead
The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before.
Vita Sackville-WestRead
There is nothing more lovely in life than the union of two people whose love for one another has grown through the years, from the small acorn of passion, into a great rooted tree
Vita Sackville-WestRead
It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How _x000D_ else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?
Vita Sackville-WestRead
Similar quotes
October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight.
Henry David ThoreauRead
By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and guiding path toward a spiritual life.
Thomas MoreRead
Dublin dwindles so beautifully; there is no harsh separation between it and the country. It fades away, whereas London seems to devour the country; an army of buildings come and take away a beautiful park, and you never seem to get quite out of sight of a row of houses.
George A. MooreRead
The sky slowly pulled up its blue dress to reveal night.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
... it is not a crisis of our environs or surroundings; it is a crisis of our lives as individuals, as family members, as community members, and as citizens. We have an 'environmental crisis' because we have consented to an economy in which by eating, drinking, working, resting, traveling, and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural, god-given world.
Wendell BerryRead
As a child, I used to have a secret dread - and a recurring nightmare - of the whole world becoming city, being covered with cement and buildings and streets. No more country. No more woods.
W. S. MerwinRead