“The timeless, surly patience of the serf
That moves the nearest to the naked earth
And ploughs down palaces, and thrones, and towers.”

—  Roy Campbell (poet)

"The Serf," lines 12-14
Adamastor (1930)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The timeless, surly patience of the serf That moves the nearest to the naked earth And ploughs down palaces, and thro…" by Roy Campbell (poet)?
Roy Campbell (poet) photo
Roy Campbell (poet)10
South African poet 1901–1957

Related quotes

Edwin Hubbell Chapin photo

“Through all God's works there runs a beautiful harmony. The remotest truth in His universe is linked to that which lies nearest the throne.”

Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–1880) American priest

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, P. 531.

“He finds it many times pleasanter,
And I think no worse of him,
To grip in his placid way
The crooked plough and the goad
Than if he were wrecking a tower.”

Iolo Goch (1320–1398) Welsh bard

Gwn mai digrifach ganwaith
Gantho, modd digyffro maith,
Gaffel, ni'm dawr heb fawr fai,
Yr aradr crwm a'r irai,
No phed fai, pan dorrai dwr.
Source: Y Llafurwr (The Labourer), Line 25.

Federico García Lorca photo

“To see you naked is to recall the Earth.”

Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director

" Casidas http://www.poesia-inter.net/fgldt204.htm," IV: Casida de la Mujer Tendida from Primeras Canciones (1936)

Jimmy Buffett photo

“We're gypsies in the palace, he's left us here alone.
The order of the Sleepless Knights will now assume the throne.
We ain't got no money, we ain't got no right,
But we're gypsies in the palace, we got it all tonight.”

Jimmy Buffett (1946) American singer–songwriter and businessman

Gypsies in the Palace, written with Glenn Frey and Will Jennings
Song lyrics, Last Mango in Paris (1985)

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but can not steer their feet
Clear of the grave.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Hamatreya
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Stephen Hawking photo

“Bodies like the earth are not made to move on curved orbits by a force called gravity; instead, they follow the nearest thing to a straight path in a curved space, which is called a geodesic. A geodesic is the shortest (or longest) path between two nearby points.”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time (1988), Ch. 2

Faisal of Saudi Arabia photo

“I beg of you, brothers, to look upon me as both brother and servant. 'Majesty' is reserved to God alone and 'the throne' is the throne of the Heavens and Earth.”

Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1906–1975) King of Saudi Arabia

Speech, after he took power, in 1964. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4283169

Christopher Marlowe photo

“Let Earth and Heaven his timeless death deplore,
For both their worths shall equal him no more.”

Christopher Marlowe Tamburlaine

Amyras, Part 2, Act V, scene iii, lines 252–253
Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

“The desire not to destroy the palace but to move into it oneself has always been the occupational curse of revolutionaries.”

Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist

"Writers' Politics" (1971), p. 66
The Good Word & Other Words (1978)

Conrad Aiken photo

“Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam . . .
And after a while they will fall to dust and rain;
Or else we will tear them down with impatient hands;
And hew rock out of the earth, and build them again.”

Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) American novelist and poet

The House of Dust (1916 - 1917)
Context: What did we build it for? Was it all a dream?...
Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam...
And after a while they will fall to dust and rain;
Or else we will tear them down with impatient hands;
And hew rock out of the earth, and build them again.

Related topics