Trigger Warning

Phyllis McGinley, a talented poet from Ontario, Oregon died on this day in 1978. Literary Heist challenges you to write a poem for submission using the inspiration of Phyllis McGinley’s life.

Poetry

  • On the Contrary (1934)
  • One More Manhattan (1937)
  • Husbands Are Difficult (1941)
  • Stones from Glass Houses (1946)
  • A Short Walk from the Station (1951)
  • The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley (1954)
  • Merry Christmas, Happy New Year (1958)
  • Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades (1960), winning a Pulitzer Prize
  • Sugar and Spice (1960)
  • A Wreath of Christmas Legends (1967)
  • Fourteenth Birthday (date unknown)
  • The Adversary (date unknown)
  • Daniel at Breakfast (date unknown)
  • Without a Cloak (date unknown)

Other Works of Interest

  • Reactionary Essay on Applied Science
  • The Conquerors

Quotes

  • Sticks and stones are hard on bones Aimed with angry art, Words can sting like anything But silence breaks the heart.
  • Of one thing I am certain, the body is not the measure of healing, peace is the measure.
  • A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.
  • Life is the fruit she longs to hand you, Ripe on a plate. And while you live, Relentlessly she understands you.
  • Please to put a nickel, please to put a dime. How petitions trickle in at Christmas time!
  • In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime.
  • Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child.
  • Getting along with men isn’t what’s truly important. The vital knowledge is how to get along with a man, one man.
  • Marriage was all a woman’s idea and for man’s acceptance of the pretty yoke, it becomes us to be grateful.
  • Nothing fails like success; nothing is so defeated as yesterday’s triumphant Cause.

Find out more information about the life and times of Phyllis McGinley

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