“One flew east, One flew west, One flew over the cuckoo's nest.”
A children's folk rhyme quoted in the front pages of the book.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)
“High high in the hills, high in a pine tree bed.
She's tracing the wind with that old hand, counting the clouds with that old chant,
Three geese in a flock
one flew east
one flew west
one flew over the cuckoo's nest”
—
Ken Kesey
,
book
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Last update June 3, 2021.
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She's tracing the wind with that old hand, counting the clouds with th…" by Ken Kesey?
Ken Kesey 103
novelist 1935–2001Related quotes
“Perhaps if one flew high enough, he thought, one would be able to see.”
Life & Times of Michael K (1983)
Context: I could live here forever, he thought, or till I die. Nothing would happen, every day would be the same as the day before, there would be nothing to say. The anxiety that belonged to the time on the road began to leave him. Sometimes, as he walked, he did not know whether he was awake or asleep. He could understand that people should have retreated here and fenced themselves in with miles and miles of silence; he could understand that they should have wanted to bequeath the privilege of so much silence to their children and grandchildren in perpetuity (though by what right he was not sure); he wondered whether there were not forgotten corners and angles and corridors between the fences, land that belonged to no one yet. Perhaps if one flew high enough, he thought, one would be able to see.
“The sign was an eagle. It flew east.”
By the Waters of Babylon (1937)
Context: I went fasting, as is the law. My body hurt but not my heart. When the dawn came, I was out of sight of the village. I prayed and purified myself, waiting for a sign. The sign was an eagle. It flew east.
Sometimes signs are sent by bad spirits. I waited again on the flat rock, fasting, taking no food. I was very still — I could feel the sky above me and the earth beneath. I waited till the sun was beginning to sink. Then three deer passed in the valley going east — they did not mind me or see me. There was a white fawn with them — a very great sign.
“Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.”
Audre Lorde
(1934–1992) writer and activist
Christopher Logue
(1926–2011) Poet, screenwriter, actor
Originally written for a poster advertising an Apollinaire exhibition at the ICA in 1961 or 1962, and there titled "Apollinaire Said". The poem is therefore often misattributed to Guillaume Apollinaire. (Source: Quote…Unquote Newsletter, July 1995, p. 2).
Source: "Come to the Edge", from New Numbers (London: Jonathan Cape, 1969) pp. 65-66.
Guillaume Apollinaire
(1880–1918) French poet
Christopher Logue's poem "Come to the Edge" from New Numbers (London: Cape, 1969) pp. 65-66. It was originally written for a poster advertising an Apollinaire exhibition at the ICA in 1961 or 1962, and was titled "Apollinaire Said"; hence it is often misattributed to Apollinaire (Source: Quote…Unquote Newsletter, July 1995, p. 2).
Misattributed
“And still the arrows flew so thick and fast,
That, as by clouds, the heavens were overcast.”
Francesco Berni
(1497–1535) Italian poet
Tal l'aspro saettare, e tanto dura,
Che per l'ombra de' dardi il ciel s'oscura.
LXIV, 61
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato
