Ivor Gurney Quotes

7 Sourced Quotes

And more than he,
I paid the prices of life
Standing where Rome immortal heard October's strife,
A war poet whose right of honour cuts falsehood like a knife.

Ivor Gurney

Fierce indignation is best understood by those
Who have time or no fear, or a hope in its real good.
One loses it with a filed soul or in sentimental mood.

Ivor Gurney

War Told Me Truth: I have Severn's right of maker,
As Of Cotswold: war told me: I was elect, I was born fit
To praise the three hundred feet depth of every acre
Between Tewkesbury and Stroudway, Side and Wales Gate.

Ivor Gurney

A sense of beauty is every hindrance to a soldier; yet there would be no soldiers - or none such soldier had not men dead and living cherished and handed on the sacred fire.

Ivor Gurney

There are strange hells within the minds war made
Not so often, not so humiliatingly afraid
As one would have expected – the racket and fear guns made.

Ivor Gurney

Only, who thought of England as two thousand years
Must keep of today's life the proper anger and fears:
England that was paid for by building and ploughing and tears.

Ivor Gurney

The songs I had are withered Or vanished clean. Yet there are bright tracks Where I have been.

Ivor Gurney