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Alun Lewis Quotes (1915-1944)
Writer, Poet
About Alun Lewis
Alun Lewis (1 July 1915 – 5 March 1944) was a Welsh poet and short-story writer, often seen as one of Britain's finest Second World War poets.
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“All this slowness, all this hardness,
The nearness that is waiting in my bed,
The gradual self-effacement of the dead.”
The nearness that is waiting in my bed,
The gradual self-effacement of the dead.”
“And we talked of girls, and dropping bombs on Rome,
And thought of the quiet dead and the loud celebrities
Exhorting us to slaughter.”
And thought of the quiet dead and the loud celebrities
Exhorting us to slaughter.”
“So we must say Goodbye, my darling,
And go, as lovers go, for ever;
Tonight remains, to pack and fix on labels
And make an end of lying down together.”
And go, as lovers go, for ever;
Tonight remains, to pack and fix on labels
And make an end of lying down together.”
“He was a poet of great power, who described the loneliness of military life in the early Forties with unique eloquence and accuracy; he wrote, too, exciting and original love poetry.”
“It is only when death releases the true poet from the embarrassing condition of being at once immortal and alive in the flesh that the people are prepared to honour him; and his spirit as it passes is saluted by a spontaneous display of public emotion. This explains the heavy black headlines in the Press of March 1944: ALUN LEWIS THE POET IS DEAD. Search the back-files and you will find no preparatory announcement: ALUN LEWIS WRITES GREAT POETRY.”
“The dwarf barefooted, chanting
Behind the oxen by the lake,
Stepping lightly and lazily among the thorntrees
Dusky and dazed with sunlight, half awake;The women breaking stones upon the highway,
Walking erect with burdens on their heads,
One body growing in another body,
Creation touching verminous straw beds.Across scorched hills and trampled crops
The soldiers straggle by.
History staggers in their wake.
The peasants watch them die.”
Behind the oxen by the lake,
Stepping lightly and lazily among the thorntrees
Dusky and dazed with sunlight, half awake;The women breaking stones upon the highway,
Walking erect with burdens on their heads,
One body growing in another body,
Creation touching verminous straw beds.Across scorched hills and trampled crops
The soldiers straggle by.
History staggers in their wake.
The peasants watch them die.”
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Alun Lewis on Relevance
Alun Lewis on Peasant
“The dwarf barefooted, chanting Behind the oxen by the lake, Stepping lightly and lazily among the thorntrees Dusky and dazed with sunlight, half awake;The women breaking stones upon the highway, Walking erect with burdens on their heads, One body growing in another body, Creation touching verminous straw beds.Across scorched hills and trampled crops The soldiers straggle by. History staggers in their wake. The peasants watch them die.”
About Alun Lewis
Alun Lewis (1 July 1915 – 5 March 1944) was a Welsh poet and short-story writer, often seen as one of Britain's finest Second World War poets.