Orrery/explanation

Famous quotes containing the words orrery and/or explanation:

    “Word of gloom from the war, one day;
    Johnston pressed at the front, they say.
    Little Giffen was up and away;
    A tear—his first—as he bade good-by,
    Dimmed the glint of his steel-blue eye.
    “I’ll write, if spared!” There was news of the fight;
    But none of Giffen.—He did not write.”
    —Francis Orrery Ticknor (1822–1874)

    “Auden, MacNeice, Day Lewis, I have read them all,
    Hoping against hope to hear the authentic call . . .
    And know the explanation I must pass is this
    MYou cannot light a match on a crumbling wall.”
    —Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978)