Quotes for Rape Survivors, Sexual Abuse Survivors
Quotations and inspiration for rape and sexual assault survivors
"Oothoon weeps not: she cannot weep! her tears are locked up...the Daughters of Albion hear her woes and echo back her sighs." -Visions of the Daughters of Albion, William Blake.
"He caught her up reluctant on his golden car and bare her away lamenting. Then she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her father, the Son of Cronos... but no one, either of the deathless gods or of mortal men, heard her voice..." -From the story of Persephone; Homeric Hymns 2.1
"Sometimes I hear my voice and it's been here, silent all these years."-Tori Amos
"Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again." -Tori Amos.
"If ever man were moved with woman moans, be moved with my tears, my sighs, my groans..."-The Rape of Lucrece, William Shakespeare.
"I am learning not to say I was raped, but a man raped me. Grammatically, this is the difference between the passive and active voice. As I often tell my writing students, the active voice is preferred unless you are trying to hide responsibility." -Patricia Weaver Francisco
"Midnight makes her giant heart of Memory and Tears Drink the pale drug of silence..." -Modern Love, George Meredith.
"No coward soul is mine, no trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere..." -Emily Bronte.
| "For all my years, and knowest what I desire, Oh, save me from thy vengeance and thine ire Chaste goddess, well indeed thou knowest that I Desire to be a virgin all my life, Behold, O goddess of utter chastity, The bitter tears that down my two cheeks fall." -The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer. |
| "Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more." -Tears, Idle Tears, Alfred Lord Tennyson. |
| "Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet! I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll. There's a something in this breast, to which thy light words bring no rest..." -The Buried Life, Matthew Arnold. |
| "Dead dreams of days forsaken, Blind buds that snows have shaken, Wild leaves that winds have taken, Red strays of ruined springs..." -The Garden of Proserpine, Algernon Charles Swinburne. |
| "She cries out to me The child within myself. She clutches at me Tugging at my thoughts And asking to be remembered. Her small fingers reach through time And her sad, dark eyes Burn the symbol of her pain Onto my soul." - Broken Feather, Suzanne Stutman. |
| "Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries... Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise I rise I rise." -Still I Rise, Maya Angelou. |
next: Poetry from Rape Survivors
~ all Escaping Hades articles
~ all abuse library articles
~ all articles on abuse issues
APA Reference
Staff, H.
(2008, November 18). Quotes for Rape Survivors, Sexual Abuse Survivors, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, December 22 from https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/articles/inspiration-for-rape-survivors-sexual-abuse-survivors
