(27 February 1925 – 6 July 2002 / Ohio / United States)

poet Kenneth Koch

Quotations

  • ''"Something there is that doesn't hump a sump,"
    He said; and through his head she saw a cloud
    That seemed to twinkle.''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Mending Sump (l. 5-7). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.
    4 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''He's come to die
    Or else to laugh, for hay is dried-up grass
    When you're alone."''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Mending Sump (l. 9-11). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.
    4 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
    An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
    The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
    The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Permanently (l. 1-4). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.
    8 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''As the adjective is lost in the sentence,
    So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—
    You have enchanted me with a single kiss
    Which can never be undone
    Until the destruction of language.''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Permanently (l. 11-15). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.
    5 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next
    summer.
    I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do and its
    wooden beams were so inviting.''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams (l. 1-2). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.
    3 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''You were wearing your Edgar Allen Poe printed cotton blouse.
    In each divided-up square of the blouse was a picture of Edgar Allan Poe.''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. You Were Wearing (l. 1-2). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.
    1 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • ''In the yard across the street we saw a snowman holding a garbage
    can lid. smashed into a likeness of the mad English king, George the
    Third.''
    Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. You Were Wearing (l. 13). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.
    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.

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Bel Canto

The sun is high, the seaside air is sharp,
And salty light reveals the Mayan School.
The Irish hope their names are on the harp,
We see the sheep's advertisement for wool,
Boulders are here, to throw against a tarp,
From which comes bursting forth a puzzled mule.
Perceval seizes it and mounts it, then
The blood-dimmed tide recedes and then comes in again.

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