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William Plomer Quotes

1903–1973 South Africa

William Charles Franklyn Plomer (10 December 1903 – 21 September 1973) was a South African and British novelist, poet and literary editor. He also wrote a series of librettos for Benjamin Britten.

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Random William Plomer quote

14 quotes

On a sofa upholstered in panther skin
Mona did researches in original sin.

Collected Poems (1960)

Out of that bungled, unwise war
An alp of unforgiveness grew.

Collected Poems (1960)

'Look who's here!
Do come and help us fiddle while Rome burns!'

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

With first-rate sherry flowing into second-rate whores,
And third-rate conversation without one single pause:
Just like a young couple
Between the wars.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

So never say to D'Arcy, 'Be your age!' —
He'd shrivel up at once or turn to stone.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

A rose-red sissy half as old as time.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

When her guests were awash with champagne and with gin
She was recklessly sober, as sharp as a pin:
An abstemious man would reel at her look
As she rolled a bright eye and praised his last book.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

We hear a great deal about sex nowadays; it is possible to overestimate its importance, because there are always people who pay it little attention or who apparently manage, like Sir Isaac Newton, to get along, without giving it a thought.

The Child of Queen Victoria and Other Stories (1933)

A pleasant old duffer, nephew to a lord,
Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword,
And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad:
Just like an old liberal
Between the wars.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

It's so utterly out of the world!
So fearfully wide of the mark!
A Robinson Crusoe existence will pall
On that unexplored side of the Park —
Not a soul will be likely to call!

Borderline Ballads (1955)

Who strolls so late, for mugs a bait,
In the mists of Maida Vale,
Sauntering past a stucco gate
Fallen, but hardly frail?

Poems from New Writing (1946)

A family portrait not too stale to record
Of a pleasant old buffer, nephew to a lord,
Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword,
And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad:
Just like an old liberal
Between the wars.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

Oh, the twenties and the thirties were not otherwise designed
Than other times when blind men into ditches led the blind,
When the rich mouse ate the cheese and the poor mouse got the rind,
And man, the self-destroyer, was not lucid in his mind.

The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires (1945)

The commonplace needs no defence,
Dullness is in the critic’s eyes,
Without a licence life evolves
From some dim phase its own surprise;
Under these yellow-twinkling elms,
Behind these hedges trimly shorn,
As in a stable once, so here
It may be born, it may be born.

Borderline Ballads (1955)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Plomer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.