William Jay Smith (born 22 April 1918) is an American poet. He was appointed the nineteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968 to 1970.
Famous quotes containing the words william, jay and/or smith:
“The Heavens. Once an object of superstition, awe and fear. Now a vast region for growing knowledge. The distance of Venus, the atmosphere of Mars, the size of Jupiter, and the speed of Mercury. All this and more we know. But their greatest mystery the heavens have kept a secret. What sort of life, if any, inhabits these other planets? Human life, like ours? Or life extremely lower in the scale. Or dangerously higher.”
—Richard Blake, and William Cameron Menzies. Narrator, Invaders from Mars, at the opening of the movie (1953)
“... So damn your food and damn your wines,
Your twisted loaves and twisting vines,
Your table d’hôte, your à la carte,
. . . .
From now on you can keep the lot.
Take every single thing you’ve got,
Your land, your wealth, your men, your dames,
Your dream of independent power,
And dear old Konrad Adenauer,
And stick them up your Eiffel Tower.”
—Anthony Jay (b. 1930)
“The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.”
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)