# Quote — William Empson, The Complete Poems

> Hours before dawn we were woken by the quake.
>
> My house was on a cliff. The thing could take
>
> Bookloads off shelves, break bottles in a row.
>
> Then the long pause and then the bigger shake.
>
> It seemed the best thing to be up and go.

- Author: [William Empson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson.md)
- Book: [The Complete Poems](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems.md)
- Page: 69
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Empson#The_Complete_Poems) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/hours-before-dawn

## More from this book

> All those large dreams by which men long live well
>
> Are magic-lanterned on the smoke of hell.

p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/all-those-large.md)

> Stars how much further from me fill my night.
>
> Strange that she too should be inaccessible,
>
> Who shares my sun. He curtains her from sight,
>
> And but in darkness is she visible.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/stars-how-much.md)

> Your rights reach down where all owners meet, in Hell's
>
> Pointed exclusive conclave, at earth’s centre
>
> (Your spun farm's root still on that axis dwells);
>
> And up, through galaxies, a growing sector.

p. 37 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/your-rights-reach.md)