Christopher Logue > Quotes

“Come to the edge, he said.
We are afraid, they said.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came to the edge,
He pushed them and they flew.
Come to the edge, Life said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, Life said.
They came. It pushed them...
And they flew.”
― Christopher Logue

“Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It's too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came
And he pushed
And they flew.”
― Christopher Logue, New numbers

“Poetry is not a silent art. The poem must perform, unaided, in its reader’s head.”
― Christopher Logue

“And he who is forever talking about enemies / Is himself the enemy! ”
― Christopher Logue

“Be not too hard
For life is short
and nothing
is given
to man.
Be not to hard
When he is sold and bought
And must manage as best he can.
Be not to hard
For soon he dies
Often no wiser than he began.
Be not too hard
For life
Is short
And nothing is given
to man.”
― Christopher Logue

“Look north.
Achilles on the rampart by the ditch:
He lifts his face to 90; draws his breath;
And from the bottom of his heart emits
So long and loud and terrible a scream,
The icy scabs at either end of earth
Winced in their sleep; and in the heads that fought
It seemed as if, and through his voice alone,
The whole world's woe could be abandoned to the sky.

An in that instant all the fighting glassed.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad

“And Patroclus,
Shaking the voice out of his body, says:
‘Big mouth.
Remember it took three of you to kill me.
A god, a boy, and, last and least, a prince.
I can hear Death pronounce my name, and yet
Somehow it sounds like Hector.
And as I close my eyes I see Achilles’ face
With Death’s voice coming out of it.’

Saying these things Patroclus died.
And as his soul went through the sand
Hector withdrew his spear and said:
‘Perhaps.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“Shame that your King is not so bound to you
As he is bound to what he sniffs. And bound to mute
The voice that hints, just hints, he might be, um . . .
Not wrong, of course, ah . . . how shall we put it -
A hair's-breadth less than absolutely right.

Here's the truth:
King Agamemnon is not honour bound.
Honour to Agamemnon is a thing
That he can pick, pick up, put back, pick up again,
A somesuch you might find beneath your bed.
Do not tell Agamemnon honour is
No mortal thing, but ever in creation,
Vital, free, like speed, like light,
Like silence, like the gods,
The movement of the stars! Beyond the stars!
Dividing man from beast, hero from host,
That proves best, best, that only death can reach,
Yet cannot die because it will be said, be sung,
Now, and in time to be, for evermore.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“Moments like these absolve the needs dividing men.
Whatever caught and brought and kept them here
Under Troy's Wall for ten burnt years
Is lost: and for a while they join a terrible equality,
Are virtuous, self-sacrificing, free;
And so insidious is this liberty
That those surviving it will bear
An even greater servitude to its root:
Believing they were whole, while they were brave;
That they were rich, because their loot was great,
That war was meaningful, because they lost their friends.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad

“There is a kind of ocean wave
Whose origin remains obscure.
Such waves are solitary, and appear
Just off the cliff-line of Antarctica
Lifting the ocean's face into the wind,
Moistening the wind that pulls, and pulls them on,
Until their height (as trees), their width
(As continents), pace that wind north for 7,000 miles.

And now we see one! - like a stranger coast
Faring towards our own, and taste its breath,
And watch it whale, then whiten, then decay:
Whose rainbow thunder makes our spirits leap.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“Long after midnight when you park, and stand
Just for a moment in the chromium wash,
Sometimes it seems that, some way off,
Between the river and the tower belt, say,
The roofs show black on pomegranate red
As if, below that line, they stood on fire.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“Come to the edge, he said.
We are afraid, they said.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came to the edge,
He pushed them and they flew.
Come to the edge, Life said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, Life said.
They came. It pushed them...
And they flew.”
― Christopher Logue

“You are not lost. You never shall be lost.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“Picture the east Aegean sea by night,
And on a beach aslant its shimmering
Upwards of 50,000 men
Asleep like spoons beside their lethal Fleet.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“Honour to Agamemnon is a thing / That he can pick, pick up, put back, pick up again, / A somesuch you might find beneath your bed.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad

“TO A FRIEND IN SEARCH OF RURAL SECLUSION

When all else fails,
Try Wales.”
― Christopher Logue

“The battle swayed.
Half-naked men hacked slowly at each other
As the Greeks eased back the Trojans.
They stood close;
Closer; thigh in thigh; mask twisted over iron mask
Like kissing.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad

“Those who have slept with sorry in their hearts
Know all too well how short but sweet
The instant of their coming-to can be:
The heart is strong, as if it ever sorrowed;
The mind's dear clarity intact; and then,
The vast, unhappy stone from yesterday
Rolls down these vital units to the bottom of oneself.”
― Christopher Logue

“Those who have slept with sorrow in their hearts
Know all too well how short but sweet
The instant of their coming-to can be:
The heart is strong, as if it never sorrowed;
The mind's dear clarity intact; and then,
The vast, unhappy stone from yesterday
Rolls down these vital units to the bottom of oneself.”
― Christopher Logue, War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad