Allen Tate Quotes

Quotes about:

• Men expect too much, do too little.

  Allen Tate

  Men, Littles, Too Much

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.86, Macmillan

  46 Copy quote

• Poets are mysterious, but a poet when all is said is not much more mysterious than a banker.

  Allen Tate

  Poetry, Bankers, Mysterious

  Allen Tate (1999). “Essays of Four Decades”, Isi Books

  18 Copy quote

• We are afraid that we have not lived.
  We are not afraid of dying.

  Allen Tate

  Dying, Not Afraid

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.193, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• I have felt darkness lead me by the hand
  Over the hill to greet the singing dawn.

  Allen Tate

  Hands, Darkness, Singing

  10 Copy quote

• The mission for the day is to encourage students to think beyond traditional career opportunities, prepare for future careers and entrance into the workplace.

  Allen Tate

  Encouragement, Opportunity, Thinking

  12 Copy quote

• Men expect too much, do too little,
  Put the contraption before the accomplishment,
  Lack skill of the interior mind
  To fashion dignity with shapes of air.
  Luxury, yes but not elegance!

  Allen Tate

  Fashion, Men, Skills

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.86, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Allen Tate

  Talking, Knowing, Poet

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  7 Copy quote

• But we shall not know the world by looking at it; we know it by looking at the hovering fly.

  Allen Tate

  World, Hovering, Knows

  Allen Tate (1968). “The Hovering Fly: And Other Essays”

  6 Copy quote

• Serious poetry deals with the fundamental conflicts that cannot be logically resolved: we can state the conflicts rationally, but reason does not relieve us of them.

  Allen Tate

  Doe, Fundamentals, Serious

  Allen Tate (1999). “Essays of Four Decades”, Isi Books

  6 Copy quote

• Among friends one has the privilege of saying nothing; the civility consists in the assumption that one's silence will be civilly understood. I can imagine a small gathering of friends who say nothing all evening: they recoil from saying anything that the others don't want to hear; and their silence would be the subtlest courtesy.

  Allen Tate

  Friendship, Silence, Gathering

  Allen Tate (1967). “T. S. Eliot: The Man and His Work”, London : Chatto & Windus

  3 Copy quote

• So face with calm that heritage
  And earn contempt before the age.

  Allen Tate

  Age, Faces, Calm

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.57, Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

• What is the poem, after it is written? That is the question. Not where it came from or why.

  Allen Tate

  Written

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  3 Copy quote

• Culture is the study of perfection, and the constant effort to achieve it.

  Allen Tate

  Perfection, Effort, Culture

  Allen Tate (1999). “Essays of Four Decades”, Isi Books

  3 Copy quote

• Experience means conflict, our natures being what they are, and conflict means drama.

  Allen Tate

  Drama, Mean, Conflict

  Allen Tate (1999). “Essays of Four Decades”, Isi Books

  8 Copy quote

• Men cannot live forever
  But they must die forever.

  Allen Tate

  Men, Forever, Live Forever

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.36, Macmillan

  3 Copy quote

• The twilight is long fingers and black hair.

  Allen Tate

  Twilight, Hair, Long

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.193, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• At twelve I was determined to shoot only For honor; at twenty not to shoot at all; I know at thirty-three that one must shoot As often as one gets the rare chance - In killing there is more than commentary.

  Allen Tate

  Honor, Twenties, Twelve

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.74, Macmillan

  3 Copy quote

• For some reason most critics have a hard time fixing their minds directly under their noses, and before they see the object that is there they use a telescope upon the horizon to see where it came from.

  Allen Tate

  Hard Times, Mind, Horizon

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  11 Copy quote

• So the poet, who wants to be something that he cannot be, and is a failure in plain life, makes up fictitious versions of his predicament that are interesting even to other persons because nobody is a perfect automobile salesman.

  Allen Tate

  Perfect, Interesting, Want

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  6 Copy quote

• The only real evidence that any critic may bring before his gaze is the finished poem.

  Allen Tate

  Real, May, Critics

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  5 Copy quote

• The poet is he who fights on the passionate
  Side and whoever loses he wins; when he
  Is defeated it is hard to say who wins.

  Allen Tate

  War, Fighting, Winning

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.70, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• I believe the term modulation denotes in music the uninterrupted shift from one key to another: I do not know the term for change of rhythm without change of measure.

  Allen Tate

  Change, Believe, Keys

  Allen Tate (1999). “Essays of Four Decades”, Isi Books

  3 Copy quote

• I had kept opaque
  Down deeper than the canyons undersea
  The sullen spectrum of a buried lake
  Nobody saw; not seen even by me.

  Allen Tate

  Lakes, Saws, Sullen

  Allen Tate (2014). “Collected Poems, 1919-1976”, p.136, Macmillan

  3 Copy quote

• A poem may be an instance of morality, of social conditions, of psychological history; it may instance all its qualities, but never one of them alone, nor any two or three; never less than all.

  Allen Tate

  Two, Quality, Three

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  3 Copy quote

• Poets, in their way, are practical men; they are interested in results.

  Allen Tate

  Men, Way, Poet

  allen tate (1953). “the man of letters in the modern world”

  3 Copy quote

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