Collected Poems, 1944-1979 Quotes

“…the gaps
in sensitivity displayed are vast.
Concepts that have not often been surpassed
For ignorance or downright nastiness -
That the habit of indifference is less
Destructive than the embrace of love, that crimes
Are paid for never or a thousand times,
That the gentle come to grief - all these are forced
Into scenes, dialogue, comments, and endorsed
By the main action, manifesting there
An inhumanity beyond despair.”
― Kingsley Amis, Collected Poems: 1944-1979

“Love is a finding-out:
Our walk to the bedroom
(Hand in hand, eye to eye)
Up a stair of marble
Or decently scrubbed boards,
As much as what we do
In our abandonment,
Teaches us who we are
And what we are, and what
Life itself is.”
― Kingsley Amis, Collected Poems: 1944-1979

“...even the straightest
Of issues looks pretty oblique
When a movement turns into a clique...”
― Kingsley Amis, Collected Poems: 1944-1979

“New Approach Needed

Should you revisit us,
Stay a little longer,
And get to know the place.
Experience hunger,
Madness, disease and war.
You heard about them, true,
The last time you came here;
It's different having them.
And what about a go
At love, marriage, children?
All good, bur bringing some
Risk of remorse and pain
And fear of an odd sort:
A sort one should, again,
Feel, not just hear about,
To be qualified as
A human-race expert.
On local life, we trust
The resident witness,
Not the royal tourist.

People have suffered worse
And more durable wrongs
Than you did on that cross
(I know - you won't get me
Up on one of those things),
Without sure prospect of
Ascending good as new
On the third day, without
'I die, but man shall live'
As a nice cheering thought.

So, next time, come off it,
And get some service in,
Jack, long before you start
Laying down the old law:
If you still want to then.
Tell your dad that from me.”
― Kingsley Amis, Collected Poems: 1944-1979

“The Huge Artifice:
an interim assessment

Enough of this great work has now appeared
For sightings to be taken, the ground cleared,
Though the main purpose - what it's all about
In the thematic sense - remains in doubt.
We can be certain, even at this stage,
That seriousness adequate to engage
Our deepest critical concern is not
To be found here. First: what there is of plot
Is thin, repetitive, leaning far too much
On casual meetings, parties, fights and such,
With that excessive use of coincidence
Which betrays authorial inexperience.
We note, besides these evident signs of haste,
A great deal in most questionable taste:
Too many sex-scenes, far too many coarse
Jokes, most of which have long lost all their force.

It might be felt that, after a slow start,
Abundance incident made amends for art,
But the work's 'greatness' is no more than size,
While the shaping mind, and all that implies,
Is on a trivial scale, as can be guessed
From the brash nature of the views expressed
By a figure in an early episode, who
Was clearly introduced in order to
Act as some kind of author-surrogate,
Then hastily killed off - an unfortunate
Bid to retrieve a grave strategic lapse.

More damaging than any of this, the gaps
In sensitivity displayed are vast.
Concepts that have not often been surpassed
For ignorance or downright nastiness -
That the habit of indifference is less
Destructive than the embrace of love, that crimes
Are paid for never or a thousand times,
That the gentle come to grief - all these are forced
Into scenes, dialogue, comment, and endorsed
By the main action, manifesting there
An inhumanity beyond despair.

One final point remains: it has been urged
That a few characters are not quite submerged
In all this rubbish, the they can display
Reason, justice and forethought on their day,
And that this partly exculpates the mind
That was their author. Not at all. We find
Many of these in the history of art
(So this reviewer feels), who stand apart,
Who by no purpose but their own begin
To struggle free from a base origin.”
― Kingsley Amis, Collected Poems: 1944-1979