Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, novelist, critic and classicist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works. Graves's poems—together with his translations and innovative analysis and interpretations of the Greek myths; his memoir of his early life, including his role in the First World War, Good-Bye to All That; and his speculative study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess—have never been out of print...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth24 July 1895
CountryIreland
Bullfight critics row on row crowd the enormous plaza de toros, but only one is there who knows, and he's the one who fights the bull.
Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.
No escape, / No such thing; to dream of new dimensions, / Cheating checkmate by painting the king's robe / So that he slides like a queen.
As you are woman, so be lovely:As you are lovely, so be various,Merciful as constant, constant as various,So be mine, as I yours for ever.
You reading over my shoulder, peering beneath / My writing arm.
There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.
There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.
Fact is not truth, but a poet who willfully defies fact cannot achieve truth.
I was last in Rome in AD 540 when it was full of Goths and their heavy horses. It has changed a great deal since then.
Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine processes of thought and leaps straight from the problem to the answer.
Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them.
Every fairy child may keep Two strong ponies and ten sheep; All have houses, each his own, Built of brick or granite stone; They live on cherries, they run wild I'd love to be a Fairy's child.
So when I'm killed, don't wait for me, Walking the dim corridor; In Heaven or Hell, don't wait for me, Or you must wait for evermore. You'll find me buried, living-dead In these verses that you've read.
The old lady told me that all the girls in the village of Annezin prayed every night for the War to end, and for the English to go away - as soon as their money was spent. And that the clause about the money was always repeated in case God should miss it.