the Hookley Roman
“Wharton himself had been no beaury, licked at the start by a nose that did seem an outrage, a mongrel affair beginning as the Hookley Roman then spreading into Egyptian, and possessing a perverse talent for collecting lumps, iridescent scales, ridges and spots so that it seemed to reflect half a dozen colors simultaneously, ranging through bruise-purple, cabbage green, mulberry red, baby-bottom pink and chalk white.”
—Dawn Powell, The Wicked Pavilion, 1954.
floating dollar signs
“The very air of the room seemed charmingly alive with little floating dollar signs and fat little ciphers, commas, more ciphers, all winging around happily, waiting for a mere scratch of the pen to call them into action.”
—Dawn Powell, Angels on Toast, 1938.
Bubbling Clouds Stiffly Whipped
“Through the windows, curtained in heavy pink toile de Jouy, the afternoon sky seemed marvellously blue, with bubbling clouds stiffly whipped, looking as if the great chef Oscar himself had shot them out with a pastry-gun.”
—Dawn Powell, Angels on Toast, 1938.
sumptuously soft
“[T]he radio was playing a Paul Whiteman recording of Afraid to Dream as sumptuously soft as the white bear rug in front of the great fireplace.”
—Dawn Powell, Angels on Toast, 1938.
strong and yellow as field corn
“His teeth, strong and yellow as field corn, were bared in a momentary smile. . . .”
—Dawn Powell, Angels on Toast, 1938.
a prolonged, magnificent twilight
“In the Antarctic Circle, summer has begun. It is now light twenty-four hours a day. The sun disappears only briefly near midnight leaving a prolonged, magnificent twilight. Ice showers lend a fairy tale atmosphere to the scene. Millions of delicate crystals, thin and needle-like, descend in sparkling beauty through the twilight air.”
—Sir Ernest Shackleton; the last entries in his shipboard diary, 1915; Endurance: Shackletons Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing. Quoted by Andr Gregory in Bone Songs, 2006.
fresh pink lips
“I would love to smother someone new.
Kill her with kisses on her fresh pink lips.
Tear out her eyeballs with my fingertips.
Love her to death in a deathly life.
Id be her vampire,
shed be my wife.”
—Andr Gregory, Bone Songs, 2006.
turn on the lights
“Turn on the lights,
turn on the lights,
the days are done,
I want the nights.”
—Andr Gregory, Bone Songs, 2006.
the golden leaves of autumn
“Its time.
A time to rake the golden leaves of autumn
and a time to sit by running brooks in summertime,
fishing with a golden fly
and wishing that these endless evenings never die or fade.”
—Andr Gregory, Bone Songs, 2006.
a dark brown voice
“She walked up to me
And she asked me to dance
I asked her her name
And in a dark brown voice
She said Lola
L-O-L-A Lola”
—Ray Davies (The Kinks), Lola, 1970.