Famous quotes containing the word billows:
“The attention of those who frequent the camp-meetings at Eastham is said to be divided between the preaching of the Methodists and the preaching of the billows on the back side of the Cape, for they all stream over here in the course of their stay. I trust that in this case the loudest voice carries it. With what effect may we suppose the ocean to say, “My hearers!” to the multitude on the bank. On that side some John N. Maffit; on this, the Reverend Poluphloisboios Thalassa.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The lies fall like flaxen threads from the skies
All over America, and the fact that some of them are true of course
Doesn’t so much not matter as serve to justify
The whole mad organizing force under the billows of correct delight.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“I remember your breast does it still lie
Tactual billows in an upper world
Of superior sculpture, whence you hurled
Volcanic innocence and death
Out of the caverns beneath breath?”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)