H. Auden
H. Auden
cells convinced
Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
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.
choices police citizens
There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.
responsibility aristocracy poetic
Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.
grieving fog world
Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy.
food cooking murder
Murder is commoner among cooks than among members of any other profession.
helping-others men earth
Moreover, if great men are the only hope of the Evolutionary Process, they are morally bound to rule over the masses for their own good -- we are all here on earth to help others: what on earth the others are here for, I don't know -- and the masses have no right whatsoever to resist them.
poet happens
Poetry makes nothing happen.
mistake gone mets
The friends who met here and embraced are gone, Each to his own mistake;
civilization greek conscious
Had Greek civilization never existed ... we would never have become fully conscious.
zero losing loser
In life the loser's score is always zero.
suffering masters
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters.
helping-others earth helping
We were put on this Earth to help others. Why others were put here is beyond me.