Orange Crate Art: David Lehman on The Waste Land

the first poem of the 20th century
in which bad sex is a metaphor
for the failure of civilization

From the poem "November 23," in The Daily Mirror.

Words to live by

Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

*

Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]

Heraclitus

*

Every day is a new deal.

Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”

*

Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]

Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again

*

Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.

Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living

*

I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.

J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction

*

I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try

Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”

*

L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]

Simone Weil, in a letter

Orange Crate Art

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

David Lehman on The Waste Land

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