John Davidson (poet)

thumb|Business – the world's work – is the sale of lies… John Davidson (April 11, 1857 – March 23, 1909) was a Scottish journalist, playwright, fiction-writer and translator, but is best remembered as a poet. Quotes thumb|One must becomeFanatic – be a wedge – a thunder-boltTo smite a passage through the close-grained world. thumb| Mere by-blows are the world and we,And time within eternityA sheer anachronism. thumb|Unwilling friend, let not your spite abate;Help me with scorn, and strengthen me with hate. Business – the world's work – is the sale of lies:Not goods, but trade-marks; and still more and moreIn every branch becomes the sale of money. Smith (Glasgow: Wilson, 1888) p. 26 One must becomeFanatic – be a wedge – a thunder-boltTo smite a passage through the close-grained world. Smith (Glasgow: Wilson, 1888) p. 33 Mere by-blows are the world and we,And time within eternityA sheer anachronism. "Queen Elizabeth's Day", from Fleet Street Eclogues (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., [1893] 1895) p. 198 Farewell the hope that mocked, farewell despairThat went before me still and made the pace.The earth is full of graves, and mine was thereBefore my life began; my resting-place. "The Last Journey", from The Testament of dick peter (London: Grant Richards, 1908) p. 146 That minister of ministers,Imagination, gathers upThe undiscovered Universe,Like jewels in a jasper cup. There is a Dish to hold the Sea, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) My feet are heavy now but on I go,My head erect beneath the tragic years. I felt the World a-spinning on its Nave, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) Ballads and Songs (1894) Quotations are cited from the 1st edition (Boston: Copeland & Day, 1894). Unwilling friend, let not your spite abate;Help me with scorn, and strengthen me with hate. "To My Enemy", p. 2 Seraphs and saints with one great voiceWelcomed that soul that knew not fear.Amazed to find it could rejoice,Hell raised a hoarse, half-human cheer. "A Ballad of Hell", p. 85 And the difficultest job a man can do,Is to come it brave and meek with thirty bob a week,And feel that that's the proper thing for you.It's a naked child against a hungry wolf;It's playing bowls upon a splitting wreck;It's walking on a string across a gulfWith millstones fore-and-aft about your neck;But the thing is daily done by many and many a one.And we fall, face forward, fighting, on the deck. "Thirty Bob a Week", p. 97 External links John Davidson Category:Poets from Scotland Category:Novelists from Scotland Category:Short story writers from Scotland Category:Playwrights from Scotland Category:Journalists from Scotland Category:Translators from Scotland Category:1909 deaths