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The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren QUOTES

The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren QUOTES

1 " Beauty
Is the fume-track of necessity. This thought
Is therapeutic.

If, after several
Applications, you do not find
Relief, consult your family physician "

― , The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

2 " We live in time so little time
And we learn all so painfully,
That we may spare this hour's term
To practice for eternity. "

― , The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

3 " Bearded Oaks"

The oaks, how subtle and marine,
Bearded, and all the layered light
Above them swims; and thus the scene,
Recessed, awaits the positive night.

So, waiting, we in the grass now lie
Beneath the languorous tread of light:
The grassed, kelp-like, satisfy
The nameless motions of the air.

Upon the floor of light, and time,
Unmurmuring, of polyp made,
We rest; we are, as light withdraws,
Twin atolls on a shelf of shade.

Ages to our construction went,
Dim architecture, hour by hour:
And violence, forgot now, lent
The present stillness all its power.

The storm of noon above us rolled,
Of light the fury, furious gold,
The long drag troubling us, the depth:
Dark is unrocking, unrippling, still.

Passion and slaughter, ruth, decay
descend, minutely whispering down,
Silted down swaying streams, to lay
Foundation for our voicelessness.

All our debate is voiceless here,
As all our rage, the rage of stone;
If hope is hopeless, then fearless is fear,
And history is thus undone.

Our feet once wrought the hollow street
With echo when the lamps were dead
All windows, once our headlight glare
Disturbed the doe that, leaping fled.

I do not love you less that now
The caged heart makes iron stroke,
Or less that all that light once gave
The graduate dark should now revoke.

We live in time so little time
And we learn all so painfully,
That we may spare this hour's term
To practice for eternity. "

― , The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

4 " Uno veía a Shiloh y demás, se ponía irritable, jugueteaba toda la noche.
Los chicos fastidiaban por Texas. «Maldita sea, no hay nada.
Maldita sea,
En Texas», pero tomó los carros, se fue, y para demostrar que tenía razón,
Se quedó un año y un día, «diablos, nada en Texas», lo había demostrado, volvió al vómito negro,
Y murieron, y murieron, y están muertos, y ahora sus voces
se van perdiendo como el último grillo en la oscuridad helada, en la hierba perdida,
Sin nada que decirnos sobre nuestra complejidad de opciones,
Pero para pedirnos una sola palabra con que justificar su propio costo de vida. "

― , The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren

5 " I did not understand my complex of feeling.
Particularly as she was saying, ‘Yes,
I’m sorry I ever met you. Ever. If
I hadn’t I wouldn’t have to go through this
Awfulness, the awfulest part being that
I’ll remember you. Always.’

— Robert Penn Warren, from “Goodbye,” Uncollected Poems 1943-1989, The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren, ed. John Burt (Louisiana State University Press, 1998) "

― , The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren