Thom Gunn Quotes

Thom Gunn , born Thomson William Gunn, was an Anglo-American poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style. After relocating from England to San Francisco, Gunn wrote about gay-related topics—particularly in his most famous work, The Man With Night Sweats in 1992—as well as drug use, sex and his bohemian lifestyle. He won major literary awards.

✵ 29. August 1929 – 25. April 2004

Thom Gunn: 7 quotes0 likes

Famous Thom Gunn Quotes

“Their relationship consisted
In discussing if it existed.”

“These seem like bristles, and the hide is tough.
No claw or web here: each foot ends in hoof.”

Moly (l. 9-10)
Collected Poems by Thom Gunn (1994)

“My thoughts are crowded with death
and it draws so oddly on the sexual
that I am confused
confused to be attracted
by, in effect, my own annihilation.”

"In Time Of Plague," in The Man With Night Sweats (1992)
Other

“Thus for each blunt-faced ignorant one
The great grey rigid uniform combined
Safety with virtue of the sun.
Thus concepts linked like chainmail in the mind.”

Considering the Snail (l. 5-10)
Collected Poems by Thom Gunn (1994)

“One joins the movement in a valueless world,
Choosing it, till both hurler and the hurled,
One moves as well, always toward, toward.”

On the Move (l. 30-32)
Collected Poems by Thom Gunn (1994)

“Direct me gods, whose changes are all holy,
To where it flickers deep in grass, the moly.”

Moly (l. 21-22)
Collected Poems by Thom Gunn (1994)

“Distorting hackneyed words in hackneyed songs
He turns revolt into a style, prolongs
The impulse to a habit of the time.”

"Elvis Presley,", in The Sense of Movement (1957).
Other

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