The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Church Going’ (1955)
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
‘Church Going’ (1955)
What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
‘Days’ (1964)
Life is first boredom, then fear.
Whether or not we use it, it goes,
And leaves what something hidden from us chose,
And age, and then the only end of age.
‘Dockery & Son’ (1964)
Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.
‘High Windows’ (1974)
Next year we are to bring the soldiers home
For lack of money, and it is all right.
Places they guarded, or kept orderly,
Must guard themselves, and keep themselves orderly.
‘Homage to a Government’ (1974)
Next year we shall be living in a country
That brought its soldiers home for lack of money.
The statues will be standing in the same
Tree-muffled squares, and look nearly the same.
Our children will not know it’s a different country.
All we can hope to leave them now is money.
‘Homage to a Government’ (1974)
Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.
‘I Remember, I Remember’ (1955)
Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word—the men