Collected Poems, 1917-1982 Quotes

“Ars Poetica

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean
But be.”
― Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917-1982

“Around, around the sun we go:
The moon goes round the earth.
We do not die of death:
We die of vertigo.”
― Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917-1982

“A poem should not mean
But be.”
― Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917-1982

“And here face down beneath the sun
And here upon earth's noonward height
To feel the always coming on
The always rising of the night”
― Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917-1982