Source: Collected Poems 1947-1997
"Working at Perfekt"
“These things surely lie on the knees of the gods.”
I. 267. Cf. Iliad XVII. 514.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
“if they make me watch that movie one more time, I will fall down on my knees and beg for mercy”
Source: Finally
The Last Lecture (2008)
Cecilia
Song lyrics, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970)
“Your thighs are appletrees. Your knees are a southern breeze.”
Source: The Farmers' Daughters
2010s, Why Penn Jillette is Terrified of a President Trump (2016)
Context: The problem is, I know Trump, so my optimism has been squashed like a baby bird … Everything bad I had to say about him, I said to his face. … I think he’s very good, very compelling on that show [Celebrity Apprentice] … I really like him because of his absence of filters. I really like the glimpse we get into the human heart we get when someone loses their filters … If he weren’t running for president, you’d be seeing essays from me about how much I learned from Donald Trump and how much I loved being on the show … I’m feeling so, so, so guilty, because I feel like, along with millions of other people, I played right into this. The cynicism of the Clintons, the careful, tightrope walk of all politicians, forced me, as an atheist, to get down on my knees and pray that someone would come along with some kind of authenticity … Well, someone called my bluff, goddamn it. … I’m a pure and utter peacenik. I want a president who sings the praises of people, sings the praises of peace and sings the praises of working together for a great country … Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have laughed about waterboarding … If you told me right now I could have another eight years of Obama, I would not hesitate to grab at it. … He is unquestionably good and unquestionably smarter than I am, which is putting the bar pretty low. I want a president that is kinder, smarter and more measured than me.
“Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee.”
Oh! Susanna, W.C. Peters & Co. (1848).
Context: Oh I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee,
I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see
It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry
The sun so hot I froze to death; Susanna, don't you cry.
Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee.
