The past has always been the handmaid of authority.
I don't ask myself, is the life congenial to me? But, am I fitted for, am I called to, the Ministry?
I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense conciliatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
Ambition may be defined as the willingness to receive any number of hits on the nose.
The old Lie:Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.
Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.
It is a pity we do not die when our lives are finished.
Surrender is a state of living in the flow, trusting what is, and being open to serendipity and surprises.
When I look down at my pale, skinny body, I wonder why any woman would want to sleep next to it, let alone embrace it.
You can't control other people, and giving them the power to decide if you will continue to produce good work is foolish.