Quote

Therefore with idle hands and head I sit In late December before the fire's daze Punished by crimes of which I would be quit.

Allen Tate

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Allen Tate
Age: 79 †
Born: 1899
Born: November 19
Died: 1979
Died: February 9
Author
Literary Critic
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Winchester
Kentucky
John Orley Allen Tate
Therefore
Punished
Crime
December
Late
Crimes
Head
Idle
Fire
Quit
Hands
Quitting
Would
Christmas
Guilt
Daze

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I have felt darkness lead me by the hand Over the hill to greet the singing dawn.
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I say that what one loves is best: The midnight fastness of the heart.
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Poets are mysterious, but a poet when all is said is not much more mysterious than a banker.
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There is a calm for you where men and women Unroll the chill precision of moving feet.
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Other psychological theories say a good deal about compensation.
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What was I saying? An Egyptian king Once touched long fingers, which are not anything.
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Peering, I heard the hooves come down the hill. The posse passed, twelve horse the leader's face Was worn as limestone on an ancient sill.
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We are afraid that we have not lived. We are not afraid of dying.
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Punctilious abyss, the yawn of space Come once a day to suffocate the sight.
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Men expect too much, do too little, Put the contraption before the accomplishment, Lack skill of the interior mind To fashion dignity with shapes of air. Luxury, yes but not elegance!
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Among friends one has the privilege of saying nothing the civility consists in the assumption that one's silence will be civilly understood. I can imagine a small gathering of friends who say nothing all evening: they recoil from saying anything that the others don't want to hear and their silence would be the subtlest courtesy.
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There is probably nothing wrong with art for art's sake if we take the phrase seriously, and not take it to mean the kind of poetry written in England forty years ago.
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The mission for the day is to encourage students to think beyond traditional career opportunities, prepare for future careers and entrance into the workplace.
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The twilight is long fingers and black hair.
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A poem may be an instance of morality, of social conditions, of psychological history it may instance all its qualities, but never one of them alone, nor any two or three never less than all.
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My darling boy whom I shall never know, My son, I love you in my deepest fears.
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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.
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Religion is the sole technique for the validating of values.
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So the poet, who wants to be something that he cannot be, and is a failure in plain life, makes up fictitious versions of his predicament that are interesting even to other persons because nobody is a perfect automobile salesman.
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The torrent of the reaching shade Broke shadow into all its parts, What then had been of shadow made Found exigence in fits and starts.
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