The snotgreen sea

“The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.”

—James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922.

The heaventree of stars

“The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.”

—James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922.

the sole purpose of human existence

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”

—Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1962.

little black sheep

“We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We’re little black sheep who’ve gone astray,
Baa-aa-aa!”

—Rudyard Kipling, Gentlemen-Rankers, Barrack-Room Ballads, 1892.

the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River

“Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’”

—Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child, Just So Stories, 1902.

a tombstone white

“And at the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: ‘A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.’”

—Rudyard Kipling, The Naulahka, 1892.

the green fuse

“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.”

—Dylan Thomas, The Force that through the Green Fuse drives the Flower, 1934.

green and dying

“Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”

—Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill, 1946.

happy as the grass was green

“Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green.”

—Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill, 1946.

the Only Animal that Blushes

“Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.”

—Mark Twain, Following The Equator, 1897.