Allen Tate Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• William Blake cursed the flesh for a clod,
  Yet of some of his sayings we Moderns have heard tell:
  'The nakedness of woman is the work of God',
  Or that title--The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

  Allen Tate

  Heaven, Flesh, Titles

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.192, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• The torrent of the reaching shade
  Broke shadow into all its parts,
  What then had been of shadow made
  Found exigence in fits and starts.

  Allen Tate

  Shadow, Shade, Fit

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.73, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• We know the particular poem, not what it says that we can restate.

  Allen Tate

  Particular, Knows

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  4 Copy quote

• What was I saying? An Egyptian king
  Once touched long fingers, which are not anything.

  Allen Tate

  Kings, Twilight, Long

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.194, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Antiquity breached mortality with myths.
  Narcissus is vocabulary. Hermes decorates
  A cornice on the Third National Bank.

  Allen Tate

  Vocabulary, Mortality, Hermes

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.11, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• There's precious little to say between day and dark,
  Perhaps a few words on the implacable will
  Of time sailing like a magic barque
  Or something as fine for the amenities.

  Allen Tate

  Twilight, Dark, Sailing

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.43, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• There is probably nothing wrong with art for art's sake if we take the phrase seriously, and not take it to mean the kind of poetry written in England forty years ago.

  Allen Tate

  Art, Mean, Years

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  7 Copy quote

• The dreary flies, lazy and casual,
  Stick to the ceiling, buzz along the wall.
  O heart, the spider shuffles from the mould
  Weaving, between the pinks and grapes, his pall.

  Allen Tate

  Wall, Heart, Lazy

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.35, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• POET
  If not in a place, where are the People weeping?
  LIBERAL
  They creep weeping in the face, not place.
  POET
  Is it something with which we may cope
  The weeping, the creeping, the peepee-ing, the peeping?

  Allen Tate

  People, May, Faces

  Allen Tate (1947). “Poems, 1920-1945: A Selection”

  6 Copy quote

• Yevgeny Yevtushenko is a ham actor, not a poet.

  Allen Tate

  Actors, Ham, Poet

  4 Copy quote

• For often at Church I've seen the stained high glass
  Pour out the Virgin and Saints, twist and untwist
  The mortal youth of Christ astride an ass.

  Allen Tate

  Glasses, Church, Twists

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.28, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• My darling boy whom I shall never know,
  My son, I love you in my deepest fears.

  Allen Tate

  Love You, Son, Boys

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.142, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• What is the flesh and blood compounded ofBut a few moments in the life of time?This prowling of the cells, litigious love,Wears the long claw of flesh-arguing crime.

  Allen Tate

  Blood, Cells, Long

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.49, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• The day's at end and there's nowhere to go,
  Draw to the fire, even this fire is dying;
  Get up and once again politely lying
  Invite the ladies toward the mistletoe.

  Allen Tate

  Christmas, Lying, Fire

  Allen Tate (1947). “Poems, 1920-1945: A Selection”

  15 Copy quote

• Swimmer of noonday, lean for the perfect dive
  To the dead Mother's face, whose subtile down
  You had not seen take amber light alive.

  Allen Tate

  Mother, Swimming, Light

  4 Copy quote

• Good manners, Madam, are had these days not
  For your asking, nor mine, nor what-we-used-to-be's.
  The day is a loud grenade that bursts a smile
  Of serious weeds in a comic lily plot.

  Allen Tate

  Weed, Good Man, Plot

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.204, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Struck in the wet mire
  Four thousand leagues from the ninth buried city
  I thought of Troy, what we had built her for.

  Allen Tate

  Cities, League, Four

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.69, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• The innocent mansion of a panther's heart!

  Allen Tate

  Heart, Panthers, Innocence

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.17, Macmillan

  11 Copy quote

• I thought I heard the dark pounding its head
  On a rock, crying: Who are the dead?

  Allen Tate

  Dark, Rocks, Cry

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.43, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Walk in this faithless grass with studious tread,
  Lest mice, weasels, germane beasts, too soon
  The tall hat and eyes, the fierce feet, for dead
  Descry, and fix you prone in their revelling moon.

  Allen Tate

  Eye, Moon, Feet

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.91, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Death's long anabasis.

  Allen Tate

  Long

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.56, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Genetic theories, I gather, have been cherished academically with detachment.

  Allen Tate

  Detachment, Theory, Has Beens

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  8 Copy quote

• Dark accurate plunger down the successive knell
  Of arch on arch, where ogives burst a red
  Reverberance of hail upon the dead
  Thunder like an exploding crucible!

  Allen Tate

  Dark, Crucible, Arches

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.19, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Therefore with idle hands and head I sit
  In late December before the fire's daze
  Punished by crimes of which I would be quit.

  Allen Tate

  Christmas, Hands, Fire

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.103, Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

• And I have seen long fingers that would stare
  With fiery eyes, and then the eyes would crawl
  Deftly across the counterpane and fall
  Soundless, with a wink of mild despair.

  Allen Tate

  Twilight, Fall, Eye

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.193, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

Page 3 of 4

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin