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They do not live in the world,
Are not in time and space.
From birth to death hurled
No word do they have, not one
To plant a foot upon,
Were never in any place.

— Edwin Muir The Animals (1983)

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More quotes by Edwin Muir

The curse of Scottish literature is the lack of a whole language, which finally means the lack of a whole mind.

Scott and Scotland (1936)

I have observed in foolish awe
The dateless mid-days of the law
And seen indifferent justice done
By everyone on everyone.

The Brothers (1983)

Long time he lay upon the sunny hill,
To his father's house below securely bound.

Childhood (1983)

The world's great day is growing late,
Yet strange these fields that we have planted
So long with crops of love and hate.

One Foot in Eden (1972)

There is a road that turning always
Cuts off the country of Again.
Archers stand there on every side
And as it runs time's deer is slain
And lies where it has lain.

All Edwin Muir quotes →

Attribution

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