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William Empson

Author profile

born

September 27, 1906 in The United Kingdom

died

April 15, 1984

gender

male

website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Empson

genre

Nonfiction, Literature & Fiction, Poetry

influences

Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein

About this author

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Sir William Empson was an English literary critic and poet.

He was widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, fundamental to the New Critics. Jonathan Bate has said that the three greatest English Literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the funniest".

Empson has been styled a "critic of genius" by Sir Frank Kermode, who qualified his praise by identifying willfully perverse readings of certain authors; and Harold Bloom has stated that Empson is among a handful of critics who matter most to him, because of their force and eccentricity. Empson's bluntness led to controversy both during his life and after his death, and a reputation in part als...more

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Books by William Empson

Average rating: 3.91 · 219 ratings · 24 reviews · 20 distinct works

	Seven Types of Ambiguity 3.80 avg rating — 136 ratings — published 1930 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Milton's God 4.41 avg rating — 22 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Some Versions of Pastoral 3.85 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1960 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Complete Poems 3.90 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2000 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Collected Poems 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1950 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Faustus and the Censor: The English Faust-Book and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus by William Empson, John Henry Jones 3.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1987	My rating:
	The structure of complex words 3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Royal Beasts and Other Works 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1986 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Essays on Renaissance Literature, Volume 1: Donne and the New Philosophy by William Empson, John Haffenden (Editor) 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1995 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Argufying: Essays on Literature and Culture 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 4 editions	My rating:

More books by William Empson…

Quotes by William Empson

“Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
What is there to be or do?
What's become of me or you?
Are we kind or are we true?
Sitting two and two, boys, waiting for the end.

Shall I build a tower, boys, knowing it will rend
Crack upon the hour, boys, waiting for the end?
Shall I pluck a flower, boys, shall I save or spend?
All turns sour, boys, waiting for the end.

Shall I send a wire, boys? Where is there to send?
All are under fire, boys, waiting for the end.
Shall I turn a sire, boys? Shall I choose a friend?
The fat is in the pyre, boys, waiting for the end.

Shall I make it clear, boys, for all to apprehend,
Those that will not hear, boys, waiting for the end,
Knowing it is near, boys, trying to pretend,
Sitting in cold fear, boys, waiting for the end?

Shall we send a cable, boys, accurately penned,
Knowing we are able, boys, waiting for the end,
Via the Tower of Babel, boys? Christ will not ascend.
He's hiding in his stable, boys, waiting for the end.

Shall we blow a bubble, boys, glittering to distend,
Hiding from our trouble, boys, waiting for the end?
When you build on rubble, boys, Nature will append
Double and re-double, boys, waiting for the end.

Shall we make a tale, boys, that things are sure to mend,
Playing bluff and hale, boys, waiting for the end?
It will be born stale, boys, stinking to offend,
Dying ere it fail, boys, waiting for the end.

Shall we go all wild, boys, waste and make them lend,
Playing at the child, boys, waiting for the end?
It has all been filed, boys, history has a trend,
Each of us enisled, boys, waiting for the end.

What was said by Marx, boys, what did he perpend?
No good being sparks, boys, waiting for the end.
Treason of the clerks, boys, curtains that descend,
Lights becoming darks, boys, waiting for the end.

Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
Not a chance of blend, boys, things have got to tend.
Think of those who vend, boys, think of how we wend,
Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.

- 'Just A Smack at Auden”
― William Empson, The Complete Poems

5 people liked it

“Villanelle

It is the pain, it is the pain endures.
Your chemic beauty burned my muscles through.
Poise of my hands reminded me of yours.

What later purge from this deep toxin cures?
What kindness now could the old salve renew?
It is the pain, it is the pain endures.

The infection slept (custom or changes inures)
And when pain's secondary phase was due
Poise of my hands reminded me of yours.

How safe I felt, whom memory assures,
Rich that your grace safely by heart I knew.
It is the pain, it is the pain endures.

My stare drank deep beauty that still allures.
My heart pumps yet the poison draught of you.
Poise of my hands reminded me of yours.

You are still kind whom the same shape immures.
Kind and beyond adieu. We miss our cue.
It is the pain, it is the pain endures.
Poise of my hands reminded me of yours.”
― William Empson, The Complete Poems

3 people liked it

“Let It Go

It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange.
The more things happen to you the more you can't
Tell or remember even what they were.

The contradictions cover such a range.
The talk would talk and go so far aslant.
You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there.”
― William Empson, The Complete Poems