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Cecil Day-Lewis Quotes

1904–1972 Ireland

Cecil Day-Lewis, CBE (27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972) was an Irish poet, the British Poet Laureate between 1968 to 1972, and, under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake, a mystery writer. He was the father of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis and the TYV star Tamasin Day-Lewis.

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Also known as: C. Day Lewis, Cecil Day Lewis, Lewis, Cecil Day

Random Cecil Day-Lewis quote

12 quotes

Tempt me no more, for I
Have known the lightning's hour,
The poet's inward pride,
The certainty of power.

Tempt Me No More (1933)

Do not expect again a phoenix hour,
The triple-towered sky, the dove complaining,
Sudden the rain of gold and heart's first ease
Traced under trees by the eldritch light of sundown.

It is the logic of our times,
No subject for immortal verse—
That we who lived by honest dreams
Defend the bad against the worse.

Where are the War Poets? (1943)

Hurry! We burn
For Rome’s so near us, for the phoenix moment
When we have thrown off this traveller’s trance
And mother-naked and ageless-ancient
Wake in her warm nest of renaissance.

I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show —
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.

Requiem for the Living (1964)

Shall I be gone long?
For ever and a day
To whom there belong?
Ask the stone to say
Ask my song.

Is it far to go? (1963)

Is it birthday weather for you, dear soul?
Is it fine your way

Birthday Poem for Thomas Hardy (1949)

Do not expect again the phoenix hour,
The triple-towered sky, the dove's complaining,
Sudden the rain of gold and heart's first ease
Traced under trees by the eldritch light of sundown.

It's hard to believe a spirit could die
Of such generous glow

Birthday Poem for Thomas Hardy (1949)

They who in folly or mere greed
Enslaved religion, markets, laws,
Borrow our language now and bid
Us to speak up in freedom's cause.

Where are the War Poets? (1943)

Who will say farewell?
The beating bell.
Will anyone miss me?
That I dare not tell —
Quick, Rose, and kiss me.

Is it far to go? (1963)

Put out the lights now!
Look at the Tree, the rough tree dazzled
In oriole plumes of flame,
Tinselled with twinkling frost fire, tasselled
With stars and moons

The Christmas Tree (1953)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Cecil Day-Lewis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.