Irving Layton
Irving Layton
Irving Peter Layton, OCwas a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following, but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography, Layton fought Puritanism throughout his life:...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth12 March 1912
CountryCanada
longer mankind since
Since I no longer expect/ anything from mankind except/ madness,/ meanness, and mendacity;/ egotism,/ cowardice,/ and/ self-delusion,/ I have stopped/ being a/ misanthrope.
blow world afar
how seasonably leaf and blossom uncurl and living things arrange their death, while someone from afar off blows birthday candles for the world.
kissing order world
A poet is deeply conflicted and it's in his work that he reconciles those deep conflicts. The place is the harbor. It doesn't set the world in order, you know, it's the place of reconciliation. It's the Consolamentum, the kiss of peace.
jesus son christianity
To this pass Christianity has come There is no God, and Jesus is his son.
leader political worthy
A political leader worthy of assassination
littles aphorism soreness
An aphorism should be like a burr: sting, ... and leave a little soreness....
want mankind
Only the tiniest fracton of mankind want freedom. All the rest want someone to tell them theyare free.
flames stoves minutes
Time flames like a paraffin stove / and what burns are the minutes I live.
unhappy progress make-me-happy
Progress of a marriage: There was a time when you couldn't make me happy. Now the time has come when you can make me unhappy.
want neighbor envied
My neighbor doesn't want to be loved as much as he wants to be envied.
looks canada united-states
Canadians look down on the United States and consider it Hell. They are right to do so. Canada is to the United States what, in Dante's scheme, Limbo is to Hell
genius wordsworth written
I am a genius who has written poems that will survive with the best of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Keats