H. Auden
H. Auden
memories believe men
Christ did not enchant men; He demanded that they believe in Him: except on one occasion, the Transfiguration. For a brief while, Peter, James, and John were permitted to see Him in His glory. For that brief while they had no need of faith. The vision vanished, and the memory of it did not prevent them from all forsaking Him when He was arrested, or Peter from denying that he had ever known Him.
men honor ifs
Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one
luxury soul stones
Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.
sorry maturity years
My poetry doesn't change from place to place - it changes with the years. It's very important to be one's age. You get ideas you have to turn down - 'I'm sorry, no longer'; 'I'm sorry, not yet.
suffering sorrow eating
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; How well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.
dream men order
A man is a form of life that dreams in order to act and acts in order to dream.
hair self hands
That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.
stars heart men
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews Not to be born is the best for man The second best is a formal order The dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easy The tune is catching and will not stop Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, dance, dance till you drop.
hurt mad ireland
Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
cells convinced
Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
stars moon funeral
The stars are not wanted now, put out every one Pack up the moon & dismantle the sun.
flower fall rain
The sky is darkening like a stain Something is going to fall like rain And it won't be flowers
like-love cant knows
Like love we don't know where or why Like love we cant compel or fly Like Love we often weep Like Love we seldom keep
perseverance believe book
As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot distinguish between taste and judgment, so long, that is, as the only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like; this I don't like. For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it, I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don't like it.