Allen Tate

John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979) was an American poet, essayist, and social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, 1943–1944.

Quotes

• They darted down and rose up like a wave
  Or buzzed impetuously as before;
  One would have thought the corpse was held a slave
  To living by the life it bore!
  • "A Carrion", from Poems (1961)

• What is the flesh and blood compounded of
  But a few moments in the life of time?
  This prowling of the cells, litigious love,
  Wears the long claw of flesh-arguing crime.
  • "I", from Collected Poems (1970)

• Now remember courage, go to the door,
  Open it and see whether coiled on the bed
  Or cringing by the wall, a savage beast
  Maybe with golden hair, with deep eyes
  Like a bearded spider on a sunlit floor
  Will snarl—and man can never be alone.
  • "The Wolves", from Collected Poems (1970)

• Uncle Sam's other province.
  • Description of the South, quoted in W. J. Cash, The Mind of the South (1962) p. vii

External links

• Allen Tate at Poets.org