Quotes by Basil Bunting

Basil Bunting

British poet

Lived from: 1900 - 1985

Category: Poets (Contemporary)

Born: 1 march 1900 Died: 17 april 1985

Quotes 1 till 11 of 11.

  • All you can usually say about a poem or a picture is, 'Look at it, listen to it.' Whether you listen to a piece of music or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not what it has in common with others of its kind, but what is singularly its own.
    On Poetry
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • But their determination to banish fools foundered ultimately in the installation of absolute idiots.
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • Can a moment of madness make up for an age of consent?
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • Gin the goodwife stint
    and the bairns hunger
    the Duke can get his rent
    one year longer.
    Odes Gin the Goodwife Stint, I:14
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • Poetry? It's a hobby.
    I run model trains.
    Mr Shaw there breeds pigeons.
    It's not work. You don't sweat.
    Nobody pays for it.
    You could advertise soap.
    Odes What The Chairman Told Tom, II:6
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anemia.
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • The Duke can get his rent
    and we can get our ticket
    twa pund emigrant
    on a C.P.R. packet.
    Odes Gin the Goodwife Stint, I:14
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • The mystic purchases a moment of exhilaration with a lifetime of confusion; and the confusion is infectious and destructive. It is confusing and destructive to try and explain anything in terms of anything else, poetry in terms of psychology.
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • To appreciate present conditions, collate them with those of antiquity.
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • Whether you listen to a piece of music, or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug, or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not what it has in common with others of its kind, but what is singularly its own.
    ― Basil Bunting
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  • Who says it's poetry, anyhow?
    My ten year old
    can do it and rhyme.
    Mr Hines says so, and he's a schoolteacher,
    he ought to know.
    Go and find work
    Odes What The Chairman Told Tom, II:6
    ― Basil Bunting
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What are the most famous quotes from Basil Bunting?

The two most famous quotes from Basil Bunting are:

  • "All you can usually say about a poem or a picture is, 'Look at it, listen to it.' Whether you listen to a piece of music or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not what it has in common with others of its kind, but what is singularly its own."
  • "But their determination to banish fools foundered ultimately in the installation of absolute idiots."

When did Basil Bunting live?

Basil Bunting was born in 1900 and died in the year 1985.