Inspirational Quotes by Edith Sitwell (British Poet)

Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) was an English poet, critic, and literary icon renowned for her distinctive writing style and avant-garde contributions to modernist literature. Her non-conformist spirit, flamboyant personality, and penchant for eccentricity challenged conventional norms both in her personal life and literary pursuits.

Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, Edith was part of the influential Sitwell Siblings, a trio that left a lasting impact on the literary and artistic landscape of their time. Her brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, were accomplished men of letters. Edith’s childhood, initially unhappy, transformed when her governess introduced her to the world of music and literature, including the works of Algernon Charles Swinburne and the Symbolists.

Sitwell’s rise to prominence began with her editing of the anthology Wheels (1916–21,) followed by her own poetry collection, Facade (1923,) performed with the music of composer William Walton in a controversial public reading in London. She continued to produce notable works, such as Bucolic Comedies (1923,) The Sleeping Beauty (1924,) and Elegy for Dead Fashion (1926,) all written in an elegiac romantic style.

During the romantic period, she penned short poems like “Colonel Fantock,” “Daphne,” “The Strawberry,” and “The Little Ghost Who Died for Love.” In the context of World War II, Sitwell used her poetry to denounce human cruelty in pieces like Street Songs (1942,) Green Song (1944,) and The Song of the Cold (1945.)

Beyond her own writing, Sitwell was a respected critic and advocate for fellow poets and writers. She contributed to journals and anthologies and authored notable works like The English Eccentrics (1933,) Victoria of England (1936,) Fanfare of Elizabeth (1946,) and The Queens and the Hive (1962.) Her posthumously published autobiography, Taken Care Of (1965,) provided further insight into her remarkable life and literary legacy.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Edith Sitwell

I am dying, but otherwise quite well.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Mindsets, Optimism, Positive Attitudes

Good taste is the worst vice ever invented.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Taste, Style

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Silence

I am one of those unhappy persons who inspire bores to the greatest flights of art.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Boredom

I’m not the man to balk at a low smell, I not the man to insist on asphodel. This sounds like a He-fellow, don’t you think? It sounds like that. I belch, I bawl, I drink.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Men

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Winter

Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Madness

Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?
—Edith Sitwell

Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Vulgarity, Profanity, Swearing

Hot water is my native element. I was in it as a baby, and I have never seemed to get out of it ever since.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Babies, Trials, Justice

The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Poets, Poetry

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.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Water, Rain

I have taken this step because I want the discipline, the fire and the authority of the Church. I am hopelessly unworthy of it, but I hope to become worthy.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Authority

I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty. But I am too busy thinking about myself.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Humility, Modesty

The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Flattery

I am not eccentric. It’s just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Originality

I am patient with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Foolishness, Patience, Stupidity

Poetry is the deification of reality.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Words

It is hardly respectable to be good nowadays.
—Edith Sitwell
Topics: Virtue

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Inspirational Quotes by Edith Sitwell (British Poet)

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