Allen Tate

Allen Tate

John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979) was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.

Read more about Allen Tate:  Life, Literary Work, Political Writing

Famous quotes by allen tate:

    I lay the mind’s contents
    Bare, as upon a table,
    And ask, in a time of war,
    Whether there is still
    To a mind frivolously dull
    Anything worth living for.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    So you, O nameless Duchess who die young,
    Meet death somewhat lovingly
    And I am filled with a pity of beholding skulls.
    There was no pride like yours.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    Leave now
    The shut gate and the decomposing wall:
    The gentle serpent, green in the mulberry bush,
    Riots with his tongue through the hush
    Sentinel of the grave who counts us all!
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    O animal excellence,
    Take pterodactyl flight
    Fire-winged into the air
    And find your lair
    With cunning sense
    On some Arabian bight....
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    John Brown of Ossawattamie
    Who died to set Abstraction free
    Stole Washington’s gold-handled sword
    Less for the gold than for the Lord....
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)