“The waste even in a fortunate life, the isolation even of a life rich in intimacy, cannot but be felt deeply, and is the central feeling of tragedy. And anything of value must accept this because it must not prostitute itself; its strength is to be prepared to waste itself, if it does not get its opportunity.”

— William Empson

Some Versions of Pastoral (London: Chatto & Windus, 1935) p. 5.
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William Empson 25

English literary critic and poet 1906–1984

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