Agee was best known as a film critic and screenwriter. Earlier in his career he was a reviewer and feature writer for Time, Fortune, and The Nation magazines. He was also a poet: the library owns a small gem, Permit Me Voyage (call number PS 3501 .G35 P4), a book of his poetry first published in 1934. Here is a verse from that volume:
Lyrics [excerpt]
No doubt left. Enough deceiving.
Now I know you do not love.
Now you know I do not love.
Now we know we do not love.
No more doubt. No more deceiving.
Yet there is pity in us for each other
And better times are almost fresh as true.
The dog returns. And the man to his mother.
And tides. And you to me. And I to you.
And we are cowardly kind the cruellest way,
Feeling the cliff unmorsel from our heels
And knowing balance gone, we smile, and stay
A little, whirling our arms like desperate wheels.
