The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men’s lies, the unbelieving
came home, home to a lie.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 4
hysterias, trench confessions,
laughter out of dead bellies.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 4
There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization,
Charm, smiling at the good mouth,
Quick eyes gone under earth’s lid,
For two gross of broken statues,
For a few thousand battered books.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 5
The tip’s a good one, as for literature
It gives no man a sinecure.
And no one knows, at sight, a masterpiece.
And give up verse, my boy,
There’s nothing in it.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘Mr Nixon’
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
‘In a Station of the Metro’ (1916)
O woe, woe,
People are born and die,
We also shall be dead pretty soon
Therefore let us act as if we were dead already.
‘Mr Housman’s Message’ (1911)
The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world.
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place
In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity,
Paquin pull down!
The green casque has outdone your elegance.