A poet is not a public figure. A poet should be read and not seen. Cecil Day-Lewis More Quotes by Cecil Day-Lewis More Quotes From Cecil Day-Lewis We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand. Cecil Day-Lewis self-worth writing inspirational Selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in letting go. Cecil Day-Lewis walking-away letting-go love We who fly do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet. Cecil Day-Lewis air feet lying Love is proved in the letting go. Cecil Day-Lewis best-love letting-go love-is There's a kind of release And a kind of torment in every goodbye for every man. Cecil Day-Lewis farewell goodbye men A way of using words to say things which could not possibly be said in any other way, things which in a sense do not exist till they are born … in poetry. Cecil Day-Lewis using-words born way It is unwise to equate scientific activity with what we call reason, poetic activity with what we call imagination. Without the imaginative leap from facts to generalisation, no theoretic discovery in science is made. The poet, on the other hand, must not imagine but reason--that is to say, he must exercise a great deal of consciously directed thought in the selection and rejection of his data: there is a technical logic, a poetic reasoning in his choice of the words, rhythms and images by which a poem's coherence is achieved. Cecil Day-Lewis exercise discovery science High sprits they had: gravity they flouted. Cecil Day-Lewis gravity aviation flight The poetic myths are dead; and the poetic image, which is the myth of the individual, reigns in their stead. Cecil Day-Lewis reign poetry art Flying alone! Nothing gives such a sense of mastery over time over mechanism, mastery indeed over space, time, and life itself, as this. Cecil Day-Lewis flying space giving Now the peak of summer's past, the sky is overcast And the love we swore would last for an age seems deceit. Cecil Day-Lewis summer lying past They who in folly or mere greed Cecil Day-Lewis greed poetry law To travel like a bird, lightly to view | Deserts where stone gods founder in the sand, | Ocean embraced in a white sleep with land; | To escape time, always to start anew... | Hooded by a dark sense of destination... | Travelers, we're fabric of the road we go; We settle, but like feathers on time's flow. Cecil Day-Lewis ocean dark sleep
