“What will survive of us is love.”
Blog Posted:4/17/2017 8:51:00 AM
This quote in my title to this blog was written by the English poet Phillip Larkin as the last line his poem 'An Arundel Tomb ' the footnote thereon referred to the effigy of a medieval couple that can still be seen in Chichester Catherdral.
Two points occur on reading this quote...
How often an ordinary, but profound quote by a poet outlives much of what is considered to be the best of his poetry at the time of publication.( another example might be WC Williams's 'fridge note ' ' Just to say' ).....and...
How often a poetry quote becomes so well known outside our ' poetic castle walls' that it becomes a saying well known in the world at large.( Shakespeare's ' Shall I compare thee to a Summers day' (Sonnet 18) and the well known poetic opening lines on the US statute of liberty ,are but two. ..and of course ...
..the truth or truism of the quote itself , which is consolation to us all,whether poets or otherwise, well known or not