Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Parting
Till then, good-night!
You wish the time were now? And I.
You do not blush to wish it so?
You would have blush’d yourself to death
To own so much a year ago.
What! both these snowy hands? ah, then
I’ll have to say, Good-night again.
T. B. Aldrich—Palabras Carinosas.
Good night! I have to say good night,
To such a host of peerless things!
T. B. Aldrich—Palabras Carinosas.
Adieu! ’tis love’s last greeting,
The parting hour is come!
And fast thy soul is fleeting
To seek its starry home.
Beranger—L’Adieu. Free translation.
Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal.
Byron—Childe Harold. Canto I. St. 10.
Fare thee well! and if for ever,
Still for ever, fare thee well.
Byron—Fare Thee Well.
Let’s not unman each other—part at once;
All farewells should be sudden, when forever,
Else they make an eternity of moments,
And clog the last sad sands of life with tears.
Byron—Sardanapalus. Act V. Sc. 1.
We two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years.
Byron—When We Two Parted.
Kathleen Mavourneen, the gray dawn is breaking,
The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill,
The lark from her light wing the bright dew is shaking—
Kathleen Mavourneen, what, slumbering still?
Oh hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever?
Oh hast thou forgotten this day we must part?
It may be for years and it may be forever;
Oh why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?
Ascribed to Mrs. Julia Crawford—Kathleen Mavourneen. First pub. in Metropolitan Magazine. London, between 1830 and 1840.
One kind kiss before we part,
Drop a tear, and bid adieu;
Though we sever, my fond heart
Till we meet shall pant for you.
Dodsley—Colin’s Kisses. The Parting Kiss.
In every parting there is an image of death.
George Eliot—Amos Barton. Ch. X.
The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way.
Ezekiel. XXI. 21. See also Xenophon—Memorabilia. II. 1. “Choice of Hercules.” Referred to by Carlyle—Sartor Resartus. Bk. II.
We only part to meet again.
Gay—Black-eyed Susan. St. 4.
Excuse me, then! you know my heart;
But dearest friends, alas! must part.
Gay—The Hare and Many Friends. L. 61.
Good-night! good-night! as we so oft have said
Beneath this roof at midnight, in the days
That are no more, and shall no more return.
Thou hast but taken up thy lamp and gone to bed;
I stay a little longer, as one stays
To cover up the embers that still burn.
Longfellow—Three Friends of Mine. Pt. IV.
My Book and Heart
Shall never part.
New England Primer. (1814).
If we must part forever,
Give me but one kind word to think upon,
And please myself with, while my heart’s breaking.
Thos. Otway—The Orphan. Act III. Sc. 1.
Shall I bid her goe? what and if I doe?
Shall I bid her goe and spare not?
Oh no, no, no, I dare not.
Thomas Percy—Reliques. Corydon’s Farewell to Phillis.
Now fitted the halter, now travers’d the cart,
And often took leave; but was loth to part.
Prior—The Thief and the Cordelier.
But in vain she did conjure him,
To depart her presence so,
Having a thousand tongues t’ allure him
And but one to bid him go.
When lips invite,
And eyes delight,
And cheeks as fresh as rose in June,
Persuade delay,—
What boots to say
Forego me now, come to me soon.
Sir Walter Raleigh—Dulcina. See Cayley’s Life of Raleigh. Vol. I. Ch. III.
Say good-bye er howdy-do—
What’s the odds betwixt the two?
Comin’—goin’—every day—
Best friends first to go away—
Grasp of hands you’d ruther hold
Than their weight in solid gold,
Slips their grip while greetin’ you,—
Say good-bye er howdy-do?
James Whitcomb Riley—Good-Bye er Howdy-Do.
If we do meet again, we’ll smile indeed;
If not, ’tis true this parting was well made.
Julius Cæsar. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 121.
They say he parted well, and paid his score;
And so, God be with him!
Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 8. L. 52.
Good-night, good-night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good-night till it be morrow.
Romeo and Juliet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 185.
Gone—flitted away,
Taken the stars from the night and the sun
From the day!
Gone, and a cloud in my heart.
Tennyson—The Window. Gone.
She went her unremembering way,
She went and left in me
The pang of all the partings gone,
And partings yet to be.
Francis Thompson—Daisy. St. 12.
But fate ordains that dearest friends must part.
Young—Love of Fame. Satire II. L. 232.