"Punctilious abyss, the yawn of space Come once a day to suffocate the sight."
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Quote collection
Allen Tate quotes (page 3 of 4)
79 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Our loss put six feet under ground Is measured by the magnolia's root; Our gain's the intellectual sound Of death's feet round a weedy tomb."
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"I say that what one loves is best: The midnight fastness of the heart."
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"Death's long anabasis."
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"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."
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"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."
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"Last night I fled until I came To streets where leaking casements dripped Stale lamplight from the corpse of flame; A nervous window bled."
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"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."
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"So the dubbed conceit Played nursery of cheat To clear the I of sleet."
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"All the sea-gods are dead. You, Venus, come home To your salt maidenhead."
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"Let us begin to understand the argument. There is a solution to everything: Science."
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"For intellect is a mansion where waste is without drain."
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"we know our end A packet of worm-seed, a garden of spent tissues."
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"How does one happen to write a poem: where does it come from? That is the question asked by the psychologists or the geneticists of poetry."
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"There is a calm for you where men and women Unroll the chill precision of moving feet."
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"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."
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"Let us lie down once more by the breathing side Of Ocean, where our live forefathers sleep As if the Known Sea still were a month wide-- Atlantis howls but is no longer steep!"
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"Ah, Christ, I love you rings to the wild sky And I must think a little of the past: When I was ten I told a stinking lie That got a black boy whipped."
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"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."
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"My darling boy whom I shall never know, My son, I love you in my deepest fears."
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