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Pity the planet, all joy gone
from this sweet volcanic cone;
peace to our children when they fall
in small war on the heels of small
war—until the end of time
to police the earth, a ghost
orbiting forever lost
in our monotonous sublime.

— Robert Lowell Near the Ocean (1967)

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More quotes by Robert Lowell

If we see light at the end of the tunnel,
It's the light of the oncoming train.

Day by Day (1977)

We are like a lot of wild
spiders crying together,
but without tears.

For the Union Dead (1964)

No one like one's mother and father ever lived.

History (1973)

I will catch Christ with a greased worm.

Lord Weary's Castle (1946)

Your old-fashioned tirade—
loving, rapid, merciless—
breaks like the Atlantic Ocean on my head.

Life Studies (1959)

All Robert Lowell quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Lowell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.