Allen Tate

Allen Tate

John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979) was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.

Read more about Allen Tate:  Life, Literary Work, Political Writing

Famous quotes by allen tate:

    “Walk in this faithless grass with studious tread,
    Lest mice, weasels, germane beasts, too soon
    The tall hat and eyes, the fierce feet, for dead
    Descry, and fix you prone in their revelling moon.”
    —Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    “The times have changed. Why do you make a fuss
    For privilege when there’s no law of form?”
    —Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    “What shall we say of the bones, unclean,
    Whose verdurous anonymity will grow?
    The ragged arms, the ragged heads and eyes
    Lost in these acres of the insane green?”
    —Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    “Heredity
    Proposes love, love exacts language, and we lack
    Language. When shall we speak again? When shall
    The sparrow dusting the gutter sing? When shall
    This drift with silence meet the sun? When shall I wake?”
    —Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    “For when they meet, the tensile air
    Like fine steel strains under the weight
    Of messages that both hearts bear—
    Pure passion once, now purest hate....”
    —Allen Tate (1899–1979)