9 Quotes & Sayings By Cecil Daylewis

Cecil Day-Lewis is a British writer, editor and publisher. He is the author of numerous books and short stories and was a contributing editor to the American literary magazine "The Paris Review" during the 1980s. He is also the founder of "Tightrope Books" which specialises in publishing books on writing.

A way of using words to say things which could...
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A way of using words to say things which could not possibly be said in any other way, things which in a sense do not exist till they are born … in poetry. Cecil DayLewis
And yet this self, contains Tides, continents and stars―a myriad...
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And yet this self, contains Tides, continents and stars―a myriad selves, Is small and solitary as one grass-blade Passed over by the wind Amongst a myriad grasses on the prairie. Cecil DayLewis
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First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand. Cecil DayLewis
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It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day- A sunny day with the leaves just turning, The touch-lines new-ruled - since I watched you play Your first game of fotball, then, like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away Behind a scatter of boys. I can see You walking away from me towards the schoolwith the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free Into a wilderness, the gait of one Who finds no path where the path should be. That hesitant figure, eddying away Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem, Has something I never quite grasp to convey About nature's give-and-take - the small, the scorching Ordeals which fire one's irresolute clay. I 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 proved in the letting go. Cecil DayLewis
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See this abdicated beast, once king Of them all, nibble his claws: Not anger enough left–no, nor despair– To break his teeth on the bars. Cecil DayLewis
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Poetry is not–except in a very limited sense–a form of self-expression. Who on earth supposes that the pearl expresses the oyster? Cecil DayLewis
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In June we picked the clover, And sea-shells in July:There was no silence at the door, No word from the sky. A hand came out of AugustAnd flicked his life away: We had not time to bargain, mope, Moralize, or pray. Cecil DayLewis
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The river this November afternoon Rests in an equipoise of sun and cloud: A glooming light, a gleaming darkness shroud Its passage. All seems tranquil, all in tune. Cecil DayLewis