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Robert Graves

Robert Graves, the versatile English writer, was the son of the Irish poet Alfred Percival Graves. Robert Graves established his reputation with Good-bye to All That (1929), an outspoken

Cool Web, The

by Robert Graves (1895–1985)

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5      <firstname>Robert</firstname>
6      <lastname>Graves</lastname>
7    </name>
8    <life-events>
9      <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1895</date>
10      <date ty="death" circa="false" suffix="ad">1985</date>
11      <text-value>(1895–1985)</text-value>
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16

Children are dumb to say how hot the day is,

How hot the scent is of the summer rose,

How dreadful the black wastes of evening sky,

How dreadful the tall soldiers drumming by.

But we have speech, to chill the angry day,

And speech, to dull the rose's cruel scent.

We spell away the overhanging night,

We spell away the soldiers and the fright.

There's a cool web of language winds us in,

Click here for complete poem

Poets Book of Days

July 24

Robert Graves born, 1895

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

What prominent mid-twentieth century American poet moved to Nashville to study with Allen Tate, describing himself on arrival as having a "head . . . full of Miltonic, vaguely piratical ambitions. My only anchor was a suitcase, heavy with bad poetry"?

Answer

Robert Lowell. Compare his For the Union Dead with Tate's Ode to the Confederate Dead.

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