There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
And what of the dead? They lie without shoes in the stone boats. They are more like stone than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.
Dear refuge of my weary soul, On thee, when sorrows rise, On thee, when waves of trouble roll, My fainting hope relies.
In a manner of speaking, the poem is its own knower, neither poet nor reader knowing anything that the poem says apart from the words of the poem.
A mass of dust, world's momentary slave, Is man, in state of our old Adam made, Soon born to die, soon flourishing to fade.
As I walk'd by myself, I talk'd to myself, And myself replied to me; And the questions myself then put to myself, With their answers I give to thee.
There is a passion for perfection which you will rarely see fully developed; but you may note this fact, that in successful lives it is never wholly lacking.
I hate rats. I had a pet rat to try and overcome it. I even gave him mouth-to mouth resuscitation when he had a heart attack. But I couldn't conquer it.
Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else's religion, but he'll accept his gold.
A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
There are people who have comfortable relationships with power and people with natural antagonism to power. I think it's easy to guess where I am in that.
Our rational minds often attempt to minimise or negate the mystical encounters. We forget the power of our experiences. We must embrace the reality of that event, which is a miracle.
My Muse sits forlorn She wishes she had not been born She sits in the cold No word she says is ever told.
These are people who are capable of devotion, public devotion, to justice. They meant what they said and every day that passes, they mean it more.
The industrial mind is a mind without compunction; it simply accepts that people, ultimately, will be treated as things and that things, ultimately, will be treated as garbage. (A Defense of the Family Farm, 1986)
When I rise up let me rise up joyful like a bird. When I fall let me fall without regret like a leaf.
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.
I've said what I'm prepared to say in my poems, and then journalists think that you're going to tell them a whole lot more.
I have a theory that if you've got the kind of parents who want to send you to boarding school, you're probably better off at boarding school.
He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.
To find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.
