Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry
Christopher Frywas an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, notably The Lady's Not for Burning, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth18 December 1907
bursts cross double head open run
Run on, keep your head down, cross at the double / The bursts of open day between the nights.
earth full half heaven himself language man poet poetry prose says speaks though twice virtue
Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement... says heaven and earth in one word... speaks of himself and his predicament as though for the first time. It has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time, and the drawback, if you do not give it your full attention, of seeming to say half as much in twice the time.
earth half heaven himself language man poetry prose says speaks though twice virtue
Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement. . . says heaven and earth in one word. . . speaks of himself and his predicament as though for the first time. It has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time.
admire critical except judgement leaves
I sometimes think/ His critical judgement is so exquisite/ It leaves us nothing to admire except his opinion.
clean sheets spit
Always fornicate / Between clean sheets and spit on a well-scrubbed floor.
talking world platitudes
Where in this small-talking world can I find A longitude with no platitude?
coffee espresso milk
Coffee in England is just toasted milk.
travel men light
I travel light; as light, that is, as a man can travel who will still carry his body around because of its sentimental value.
madness happens
What is madness To those who only observe, is often wisdom To those to whom it happens.
trouble ends
My trouble is I'm the sort of writer who only finds out what he's getting at by the time he's got to the end of it.
ambition animal frustration
The difference between tragedy and comedy is the difference between experience and intuition. In the experience we strive against every condition of our animal life: against death, against the frustration of ambition, against the instability of human love. In the intuition we trust the arduous eccentricities we're born to, and see the oddness of a creature who has never got acclimatized to being created.
dark light enough
The dark is light enough.
giving attention half
Poetry has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time, and the drawback, if you do not give it your full attention, of seeming to say half as much in twice the time.
religion honest-woman kicking
Religion Has made an honest woman of the supernatural, And we won't have it kicking over the traces again.