W. D. Snodgrass

William De Witt Snodgrass (January 5, 1926 – January 13, 2009) was an American poet who also wrote under the pseudonym S. S. Gardons. He won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Quotes It was the nature of the thing: No moon outlives its leaving night, No sun its day. And I went on Rich in the loss of all I sing To the threshold of waking light, To larksong and the live, gray dawn. So night by night, my life has gone. "Orpheus", st. 13. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 11 In darkness and in hedges    I sang my sour tone and all my love was howling    conspicuously alone. "Song" ("Sweet beast, I have gone prowling"), st. 1. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 22 Up the reputable walks of old established trees They stalk, children of the nouveaux riches; chimes Of the tall Clock Tower drench their heads in blessing. "The Campus on the Hill", l. 1. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 34 Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama; Aged in wrong, the empires are declining, And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence. What shall I say to the young on such a morning?— Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?— No; my little ones lean not toward revolt. "The Campus on the Hill", l. 20. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 34 They wear their godhead lightly. They look out from their hill and say, To themselves, "We have nowhere to go but down; The great destination is to stay." "The Campus on the Hill", l. 29. Heart's Needle (1959), pp. 34–5 The sleek, expensive girls I teach, Younger and pinker every year, Bloom gradually out of reach. "April Inventory", st. 2. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 37 I haven't read one book about A book or memorized one plot. Or found a mind I did not doubt. I learned one date. And then forgot. And one by one the solid scholars Get the degrees, the jobs, the dollars. "April Inventory", st. 5. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 38 I taught myself to name my name, To bark back, loosen love and crying; To ease my woman so she came, To ease an old man who was dying. "April Inventory", st. 7. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 38 I have not learned how often I Can win, can love, but choose to die. "April Inventory", st. 7. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 38 Though trees turn bare and girls turn wives, We shall afford our costly seasons; There is a gentleness survives That will outspeak and has its reasons. There is a loveliness exists, Preserves us, not for specialists. "April Inventory", st. 10. Heart's Needle (1959), p. 39                                            I happened to find    Your picture. That picture. I stopped there cold, Like a man raking piles of dead leaves in his yard        Who has turned up a severed hand. "Mementos, 1", st. 1. After Experience (1968), p. 7 —Before we drained out one another’s force    With lies, self-denial, unspoken regret And the sick eyes that blame; before the divorce    And the treachery. Say it: before we met. Still, I put back your picture. Someday, in due course,        I will find that it’s still there. "Mementos, 1", st. 4. After Experience (1968), p. 7 After experience taught me that all the ordinary Surroundings of social life are futile and vain; "After Experience Taught Me...", st. 1. After Experience (1968), p. 39 You must call up every strength you own And you can rip off the whole facial mask. "After Experience Taught Me...", st. 12. After Experience (1968), p. 40 And you, whiner, who wastes your time    Dawdling over the remorseless earth, What evil, what unspeakable crime    Have you made your life worth? "After Experience Taught Me...", st. 14. After Experience (1968), p. 40 You seem to be all finished, so We'll plug your old recalcitrant anus And tie up your discouraged penis In a great, snow-white bow of gauze. "A Flat One", st. 5. After Experience (1968), p. 47 —All this Dark Age machinery On which we had tormented you To life. "A Flat One", st. 9. After Experience (1968), p. 47 You still whispered you would not die. Yet the nights I heard you cry Like a whipped child; "A Flat One", st. 15. After Experience (1968), p. 49 Is it, then, your opinion    Women are putty in your hands? Is this the face to launch upon    A thousand one night stands? "The Poet Ridiculed by Hysterical Academics", st. 1. Selected Poems, 1957–1987 (1987), p. 266 Cf. Marlowe, Faustus (1604; 1616), act 5, sc. 1, l. 92 Where, where is the long, flowing hair,    The velvet suit, the broad bow tie; Where is the other-worldly air,    Where the abstracted eye? "The Poet Ridiculed by Hysterical Academics", st. 3. Selected Poems (1987), p. 266 Where are the beard, the bongo drums,    Tattered T-shirt and grubby sandals, As who, released from Iowa, comes    To tell of wondrous scandals? "The Poet Ridiculed by Hysterical Academics", st. 6. Selected Poems (1987), p. 267 Have you subversive, out of date,    Or controversial ideas? "The Poet Ridiculed by Hysterical Academics", st. 7. Selected Poems (1987), p. 267 Ah, what avails the tenure race,    Ah, what the Ph.D., When all departments have a place    For nincompoops like thee? "The Poet Ridiculed by Hysterical Academics", st. 8. Selected Poems (1987), p. 267 Cf. Landor, "Rose Aylmer". Simonidea (1806) External links Category:Poets from the United States Category:Translators from the United States Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Category:People from Pennsylvania Category:Deaths from disease Category:1926 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Formalist poets