Thomas Sturge Moore

Thomas Sturge Moore (4 March 1870 – 18 July 1944) was an English poet, art-historian, dramatist and wood-engraver.

Quotes

• Then, cleaving the grass, gazelles appear
  (The gentler dolphins of kindlier waves)
  With sensitive heads alert of ear;
  Frail crowds that a delicate hearing saves.
  • "The Gazelles", line 13; from The Centaur's Booty (London: Duckworth, 1903) p. ix.

• For milkmaids and queens and gipsy-princesses
  Dream and kiss blindfold or starve upon guesses.
  • "Reason Enough", line 7; from The Sea is Kind (London: Grant Richards, 1914) p. 75.

• Break free, my soul, good manners are thy tomb!
  • "Reason Enough", line 18; from The Sea is Kind (London: Grant Richards, 1914) p. 75.

• "Shells with lip, or tooth, or bleeding gum,
  Tell-tale shells, and shells that whisper 'Come',
  Shells that stammer, blush, and yet are dumb – "
  "O let me hear!"
  • "A Duet", line 5; from The Sea is Kind (London: Grant Richards, 1914) p. 78.

Criticism

• In my opinion Mr. Moore is a greater poet than Mr. Yeats. He has lived obscurely, and has not displayed Mr. Yeats's talent for self-dramatization; for these reasons and others he has never become a public figure or a popular writer.
  • Yvor Winters Uncollected Essays and Reviews (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1973) p. 139.

• A sheep in sheep's clothing.
  • Edmund Gosse, quoted in Ferris Greenslet Under the Bridge: An Autobiography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943) p. 104.
  • Sometimes misattributed to Yeats.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Thomas Sturge Moore at Wikipedia