Singing I was at peace,
Above the clouds, outside the ring:
For sorrow finds a swift release in song
And pride its poise.
Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972)
Move then with new desires,
For where we used to build and love
Is no man's land, and only ghosts can live
Between two fires.
Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972)
Draw up the dew. Swell with pacific violence.
Take shape in silence. Grow as the clouds grew.
Beautiful brood the cornlands, and you are heavy;
Leafy the boughs—they also hide big fruit.
Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972)
We'd like to fight but we fear defeat,
We'd like to work but we're feeling too weak,
We'd like to be sick but we'd get the sack,
We'd like to behave, we'd like to believe,
We'd like to love, but we've lost the knack.
Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972)
We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.
Cecil Day Lewis
How selfhood begins with a walking away, and love is proved in the letting go.
Cecil Day-Lewis
Now we lament one
Who danced on a plume of words,
Sang with a fountain's panache,
Dazzled like slate roofs in sun
After rain, was flighty as birds
And alone as a mountain ash.
The ribald, inspired urchin
Leaning over the lip
Of his world, as over a rock pool
Or a lucky dip,
Found everything brilliant and virgin.
Cecil Day-Lewis
