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:
“Lest darkness fall and time fall
In a long night when learned arteries
Mounting the ice and sum of barbarous time
Shall yield, without essence, perfect accident.
We are the eyelids of defeated caves.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“I cannot yet begin to understand
Why we are proud that an ancestor knew
The crazy Poe, who was not of our kind
Bats in the belfry that round and round flew
In vapors not quite wholesome for the mind.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“By the roadside a hideous carrion, quivering
On a clean bed of pebbly clay,
Her legs flexed in the air like a courtesan,
Burning and sweating venomously,
Calmly exposed its belly, ironic and wan,
Clamorous with foul ecstasy.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Life stood on the top stair a moment
Waved her last gray slander down the stair,
I will not forget her absent eyes
Her other smile like one rose
Falling, falling everywhere....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Of their virtues the symbol can be washtubs
But when they die it is a time of singing....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)