--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Death is the mother of beauty, mystical…" description: "\"Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose burning bosom we devise Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.\" — Wallace Stevens" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg" --- # Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose… ![“Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose burning bosom we devise Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.” quote by Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg) > “Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose burning bosom we devise Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.” [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Beauty emerges from death, a mystical process that fuels creation. **In simple terms:** Death births beauty. Key Takeaway Embrace transformation. Themes beauty death creation mysticism Mood contemplative melancholic Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - artistic inspiration - grief processing - spiritual practice Key Concepts philosophy poetry Questions to Reflect On - How does confronting mortality inspire art? - What rituals help transform loss into beauty? A Different Perspective Beauty can be fleeting and painful. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Bosoms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bosoms/) [Burning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/burning/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Death Mother](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death-mother/) [Earthly Mothers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/earthly-mothers-4357804/) [Mother](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mother/) [Mother Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mother-beauty-2121046/) [Mothers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mothers/) [Mystical](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mystical/) [Parenting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parenting/) [Waiting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/waiting/) ## Related quotes > [Death is the mother of Beauty; hence from her, alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams and our desires.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-hence-from-her-alone-shall-come/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [Death is the mother of beauty,” said Henry. “And what is beauty?” “Terror.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-said-henry-and-what-is-beauty-terror/) [Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/) > [“Death is the mother of Beauty. And what is Beauty? Terror.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-and-what-is-beauty-terror/) [Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/) > [Death is the mother of beauty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/denis-johnson/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty/) [Denis Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/denis-johnson/) > [“I love you as the mother of my child": the kiss of death. Mother of His Child: demotion. I am beginning to see this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/suzanne-finnamore/i-love-you-as-the-mother-of-my-child-the-kiss-of-death-mother-of-his/) [Suzanne Finnamore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/suzanne-finnamore/) > [Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-only-the-perishable-can-be-beautiful/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [My mother is a beauty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-louise-parker/my-mother-is-a-beauty/) [Mary-Louise Parker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-louise-parker/) > [“Death is the mother of beauty,” said Henry. “And what is beauty?” “Terror.” “Well said,” said Julian. “Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donna-tartt/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-said-henry-and-what-is-beauty-terror-2/) [Donna Tartt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donna-tartt/) > [“You are lucky in your looks,” she says. “Your mother was always a beauty and you are very like her: fair, slender, skin like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philippa-gregory/you-are-lucky-in-your-looks-she-says-your-mother-was-always-a-beauty/) [Philippa Gregory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philippa-gregory/) > [“Beautiful is that girl who always loved you more than you expected, who helps people, who taught you right from the wrong. A mother…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jyoti-patel/beautiful-is-that-girl-who-always-loved-you-more-than-you-expected/) [Jyoti Patel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jyoti-patel/) > [The only way my mother's beauty really affected me was that I always assumed that someday I would look like her. Then, late in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-waterston/the-only-way-my-mother-s-beauty-really-affected-me-was-that-i-always/) [Katherine Waterston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-waterston/) > [“She bore an uncanny resemblance to my mother, but the same beauty bloomed differently in each of them. My mother's fairness was exquisite and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-abulhawa/she-bore-an-uncanny-resemblance-to-my-mother-but-the-same-beauty/) [Susan Abulhawa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-abulhawa/) > [My mother was my beauty icon my whole life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gigi-hadid/my-mother-was-my-beauty-icon-my-whole-life/) [Gigi Hadid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gigi-hadid/) > [“Death which is the mother of the universe!—Now wear your nakedness forever, white flowers in your hair, your marriage sealed behind the sky—no revolution…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allen-ginsberg/death-which-is-the-mother-of-the-universe-now-wear-your-nakedness/) [Allen Ginsberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allen-ginsberg/) > [Death is the mother of forms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/death-is-the-mother-of-forms/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) ## More by Wallace Stevens > [Poet, patting more nonsense foamed From the sea, conceive for thecourts Of these academies, the diviner health Disclosed in common forms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/poet-patting-more-nonsense-foamed-from-the-sea-conceive-for-thecourts/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [The way through the world is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/the-way-through-the-world-is-more-difficult-to-find-than-the-way/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [The magnificent cause of being, The imagination, the one reality In this imagined world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/the-magnificent-cause-of-being-the-imagination-the-one-reality-in/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [Music falls on the silence like a sense / A passion that we feel, not understand.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/music-falls-on-the-silence-like-a-sense-a-passion-that-we-feel-not/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [The life of the city never lets you go, nor do you ever want it to.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/the-life-of-the-city-never-lets-you-go-nor-do-you-ever-want-it-to/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [After a lustre of the moon, we say We have not the need of any paradise, We have not the need of any seducing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/after-a-lustre-of-the-moon-we-say-we-have-not-the-need-of-any/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [I am what is around me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/i-am-what-is-around-me/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [“We live in an old chaos of the sun, Or old dependency of day and night, Or island solitude, unsponsored, free, Of that wide…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/we-live-in-an-old-chaos-of-the-sun-or-old-dependency-of-day-and-night/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [“Lunar Paraphrase" The moon is the mother of pathos and pity. When, at the wearier end of November, Her old light moves along the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/lunar-paraphrase-the-moon-is-the-mother-of-pathos-and-pity-when-at/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [Poetry is the scholar's art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/poetry-is-the-scholar-s-art/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [“The stars are putting on their glittering belts, They throw around their shoulders cloaks that flash Like a great shadow's last embellishment”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/the-stars-are-putting-on-their-glittering-belts-they-throw-around/) [wallace stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/unfortunately-there-is-nothing-more-inane-than-an-easter-carol-it-is/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [The word is the making of the world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/the-word-is-the-making-of-the-world/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [A diary is more or less the work of a man of clay whose hands are clumsy and in whose eyes there is no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/a-diary-is-more-or-less-the-work-of-a-man-of-clay-whose-hands-are/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) > [It is never the thing but the version of the thing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/it-is-never-the-thing-but-the-version-of-the-thing/) [Wallace Stevens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) [Explore all 352 Wallace Stevens quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/) ## More Beauty quotes > [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/we-do-not-want-nowadays-temples-of-worship-and-outward-rites-and/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [How could anybody confuse truth with beauty, I thought as I looked at him. Truth came with sunken eyes, bony or scarred, decayed. Its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/how-could-anybody-confuse-truth-with-beauty-i-thought-as-i-looked-at/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;It's loveliness increase;it will never pass into nothingness;but still will keep a bower quiet for us,and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-for-ever-it-s-loveliness-increase-it-will/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [To fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tool/to-fathom-the-power-to-witness-the-beauty-to-bathe-in-the-fountain-to/) [Tool](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tool/) > [The term "black metal" has become a lot looser, or can include a larger range of sounds and extra-musical aesthetics, not just Satan and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-marston/the-term-black-metal-has-become-a-lot-looser-or-can-include-a-larger/) [Colin Marston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-marston/) > [“We've all met people who are beautiful on the outside, however, when they open their mouths to speak, they have nothing of substance to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/we-ve-all-met-people-who-are-beautiful-on-the-outside-however-when/) [Susan C. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/) > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [To me, the beauty of a quilt or a dress lies within the stitches and the thought of the person who made them. When…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie/to-me-the-beauty-of-a-quilt-or-a-dress-lies-within-the-stitches-and/) [Natalie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie/) > [“do not misunderstand person by beauty You really do not know its real or Mask on dirty thoughts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohammed-zaki-ansari/do-not-misunderstand-person-by-beauty-you-really-do-not-know-its-real/) [Mohammed Zaki Ansari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohammed-zaki-ansari/) > [“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-already-love-in-you-your-beauty-but-i-am-only-beginning-to-love-in/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-baxter/the-more-perfect-the-sight-is-the-more-delightful-the-beautiful/) [Richard Baxter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-baxter/) > [Call her beautiful a million times and she won't believe you. Call her ugly once, and she will never forget it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tumblr/call-her-beautiful-a-million-times-and-she-won-t-believe-you-call-her/) [Tumblr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tumblr/) > [Time can but make her beauty over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/time-can-but-make-her-beauty-over-again/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [ The social \[media channel\] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. 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I needed to find out all the information I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-avery-ellison/what-about-you-what-do-you-do-i-needed-to-ask-questions-draw-him-out/) [Kate Avery Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-avery-ellison/) [Browse all 24,662 Beauty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose burning bosom we devise Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wallace Stevens" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-within-whose-burning-bosom-we/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Beauty" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-within-whose-burning-bosom-we/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/008/wallace-stevens-846_beauty_death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-w_1314161.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose burning bosom we devise Our earthly mothers waiting…” — Wallace Stevens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Wallace Stevens", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stevens/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Death is the mother of beauty,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-within-whose-burning-bosom-we/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stevens/death-is-the-mother-of-beauty-mystical-within-whose-burning-bosom-we/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```