“Like witches they flew along rows,
Keeping creation at ease”
"Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze," ll. 19-25
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)
Context: Like witches they flew along rows,
Keeping creation at ease;
With a tendril for needle
They sewed up the air with a stem;
They teased out the seed that the cold kept asleep, —
All the coils, loops and whorls.
They trellised the sun; they plotted for more than themselves.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Theodore Roethke 86
American poet 1908–1963Related quotes
“They flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.”
To East Oregonian reporter Bill Bequette at the airport at Pendleton on June 25, 1947, where Arnold was refueling his private plane. Bill Bequette and editor Nolan Skiff's front page story in the evening paper of the same day, titled Impossible! Maybe, But Seein’ Is Believin’, Says Flyer, started the modern UFO era. The EO ran front page follow-ups on June 27, 28 and 30. https://www.eastoregonian.com/news/local/the-sighting/article_1dc33f61-868d-5c36-b159-87c8465fb662.html
“It's like winning Lotto 10 times in a row.”
"SMH Article 16 Feb 2007" http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/dead-luck-ewas-flight-of-fury/2007/02/16/1171405421626.html
Discussing Ewa Wisnierska's chances of surviving being sucked 32,000 feet into a cloud.
“Like the watermen that row one way and look another.”
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus Junior to the Reader
“Treat a child like a witch and you’ll have one.”
Source: The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (1949), Chapter 12, “Village Circe” (p. 152)
“They say the promise of a witch is like a plain woman, seldom remembered.”
Source: Volkhavaar (1977), Chapter 11 (p. 100)
“Benn, Shore and Foot were like the three witches in Macbeth.”
... In some darkened room of Transport House, on the very left of the building, they are busy boiling their own witches' brew. A dash of distortion here, an element of exaggeration there, all of course to be taken with a pinch of salt. And as they brew their myths, they delight in creating hubble, bubble, toil and trouble. ... [Benn] is probably the biggest bureaucrat and the wildest spendthrift that this country has ever known. But let us recognize the facts. Benn, Shore and Foot are using the Europe issue to brew up toil and trouble inside the Labour Party for their own ends. ...If there was a "No" vote in the referendum, we would find ourselves pulling out of Europe straight into the welcoming arms of the wild men of Labour's left.
Speech to the Conservative Group for Europe in Central Hall, Westminster (19 April 1975), quoted in The Times (21 April 1975), p. 4
Post-Prime Ministerial
“Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.”
- Chinese proverb”