W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Audenwas an English poet, who later became an American citizen. He is best known for love poems such as "Funeral Blues," poems on political and social themes such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles," poems on cultural and psychological themes such as The Age of Anxiety, and poems on religious themes such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae." He was born in York, grew up in and near Birmingham in a professional middle-class...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth21 February 1907
W. H. Auden quotes about
stars passion return
How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.
confusion confusing funny-basketball
Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
exercise answers should
What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one's gifts?
trying want aging
If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try.
faith easy difficult
To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith
philosophical listening asking
See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking.
new-year years people
The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.
christmas friday easter
Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.
thinking self people
It is axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time; conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction.
marriage two
To make one, there must be two.
healing heart relaxation
In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start.
music beautiful simple
The most exciting rhythms seem unexpected and complex, the most beautiful melodies simple and inevitable.
dancing grace should
I know nothing, except what everyone knows - if there when Grace dances, I should dance.
relationship goodness easier
Goodness is easier to recognize than to define.