Catherine Davis Quote

After a TimeAfter a time, all losses are the same.One more thing lost is one thing less to lose;And we go stripped at last the way we came.Though we shall probe, time and again, our shame,Who lack the wit to keep or to refuse,After a time, all losses are the same.No wit, no luck can beat a losing game;Good fortune is a reassuring ruse:And we go stripped at last the way we came.Rage as we will for what we think to claim,Nothing so much as this bare thought subdues:After a time, all losses are the same.The sense of treachery--the want, the blame--Goes in the end, whether or not we choose,And we go stripped at last the way we came.So we, who would go raging, will go tameWhen what we have we can no longer use:After a time, all losses are the same;And we go stripped at last the way we came.

Catherine Davis

After a TimeAfter a time, all losses are the same.One more thing lost is one thing less to lose;And we go stripped at last the way we came.Though we shall probe, time and again, our shame,Who lack the wit to keep or to refuse,After a time, all losses are the same.No wit, no luck can beat a losing game;Good fortune is a reassuring ruse:And we go stripped at last the way we came.Rage as we will for what we think to claim,Nothing so much as this bare thought subdues:After a time, all losses are the same.The sense of treachery--the want, the blame--Goes in the end, whether or not we choose,And we go stripped at last the way we came.So we, who would go raging, will go tameWhen what we have we can no longer use:After a time, all losses are the same;And we go stripped at last the way we came.

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About Catherine Davis

Catherine Davis (1924–2002) was an American poet. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she studied poetry with J. V. Cunningham at the University of Chicago, and, at Stanford University, with Yvor Winters, graduating in 1951. Davis received her bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1961, at the age of 37, and subsequently joined the University of Iowa's prestigious creative writing program. The poet Donald Justice, whom she met while at Iowa, was a lifelong champion of her work. UCLA poet Edgar Bowers compared her work favorably to that of Dorothy Parker. Davis held the Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford. She taught at several universities.
Davis died in 2002 of complications related to Alzheimer's disease. She died intestate, leaving the copyrights to her works in limbo.