William Watson Quotes

In this house with starry dome,
Floored with gemlike plains and seas,
Shall I never feel at home,
Never wholly be at ease?<p>On from room to room I stray,
Yet mine Host can ne’er espy,
And I know not to this day
Whether guest or captive I.

O be less beautiful, or be less brief.

Best they honour thee
Who honour in thee only what is best.

Empires dissolve and peoples disappear,
Song passes not away.

The Poet gathers fruit from every tree,
Yea, grapes from thorns and figs from thistles he.
Pluck'd by his hand, the basest weed that grows
Towers to a lily, reddens to a rose.

His friends he loved. His fellest earthly foes—
Cats—I believe he did but feign to hate.
My hand will miss the insinuated nose,
Mine eyes the tail that wagg'd contempt at Fate.

Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness.

The after-silence, when the feast is o'er,
And void the places where the minstrels stood,
Differs in nought from what hath been before,
And is nor ill nor good.

Ladies whose smile embroiled the world.

To keep in sight Perfection, and adore
The vision, is the artist's best delight;
His bitterest pang, that he can ne'er do more
Than keep her long'd-for loveliness in sight.

God on His throne is
Eldest of poets:
Unto His measures
Moveth the Whole.

Earth is less fragrant now, and heaven more sweet.

The thirst to know and understand—
A large and liberal discontent:
These are the goods in life's rich hand,
The things that are more excellent.

O ye by wandering tempest sown
Neath every alien star,
Forget not whence the breath was blown
That wafted you afar!
For ye are still her ancient seed
On younger soil let fall—
Children of Britain’s island-breed,
To whom the Mother in her need
Perchance may one day call.

The votes of veering crowds are not
The things that are more excellent.