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About this quote

What does it mean?
Suffering and loss from war and inner despair accumulate in the human heart.
In plain terms
People carry all pain and sadness from war and dark times in their hearts.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledge the cumulative weight of suffering on the human spirit.

Where it applies

  • processing trauma
  • witnessing war
  • dealing with grief

Putting it to work

  • support those who suffer
  • process collective grief

Questions to consider

  • What wounds do you carry?
  • How do you heal from collective pain?

Another view

The imagery is highly metaphorical and abstract rather than literal.

More from Edith Sitwell

  1. Still falls the Rain At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross. Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us -

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  2. The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun Is greater than all gold, more powerful Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes Like all th…

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  3. Still falls the Rain - Dark as the world of man, black as our loss - Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails Upon the Cross.

    Permalink to quote #20

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