Wire Strung Harp

Famous quotes containing the words wire, strung and/or harp:

    Constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience the poet like an acrobat climbs on rime to a high wire of his own making.
    Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919)

    You’ve strung your breasts
    with a rattling rope of pearls,
    tied a jangling belt
    around those deadly hips
    and clinking jewelled anklets
    on both your feet.
    So, stupid,
    if you run off to your lover like this,
    banging all these drums,
    then why
    do you shudder with all this fear
    and look up, down;
    in every direction?
    Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.?, Kashmirian king, compiler, author of some of the poems in the anthology which bears his name. translated from the Amaruataka by Martha Ann Selby, vs. 31, Motilal Banarsidass (1983)

    God, who gave to him the lyre,
    Of all mortals the desire,
    For all breathing men’s behoof,
    Straitly charged him, “Sit aloof;”
    Annexed a warning, poets say,
    To the bright premium,—
    Ever, when twain together play,
    Shall the harp be dumb.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)