W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 12

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Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell.

W. H. Auden

Smell, Doe, Invisible

W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.259, DEBOLS!LLO

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The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as is apt to happen when these are abandoned, of race, but of age.

W. H. Auden

Birthday, Time, Money

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Words have no word for words that are not true.

W. H. Auden

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In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.

W. H. Auden

Moving, Mean, Men

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a culture is no better than its woods

W. H. Auden

Nature, Woods, Climate

Shield of Achilles (1955) "Bucolics"

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Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose.

W. H. Auden

Listening, Prose, Remarks

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Far from his illness The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests, The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays; By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

W. H. Auden

Rivers, Mourning, Tongue

W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.148, DEBOLS!LLO

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Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad; when it is good, one can only listen and be grateful.

W. H. Auden

Grateful, Analysis, Be Grateful

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It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful.

W. H. Auden

Past, Cheerful, Majority

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The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart; For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have; Not universal love But to be loved alone.

W. H. Auden

Heart, Men, Errors

"September 1, 1939" l. 59 (1939)

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In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.

W. H. Auden

Two, Greek, Would Be

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Left to itself the masculine imagination has very little appreciation for the here and now; it prefers to dwell on what is absent, on what has been or may be. If men are more punctual than women, it is because they know that, without the external discipline of clock time, they would never get anything done.

W. H. Auden

Appreciation, Men, Discipline

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Let me see what I wrote so I know what I think

W. H. Auden

Thinking, Let Me, Knows

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It has been said that a poem should not mean but be. This is not quite accurate. In a poem, as distinct from many other kinds of verbal societies, meaning and being are identical. A poem might be called a pseudo-person. Like a person, it is unique and addresses the reader personally. On the other hand, like a natural being and unlike a historical person, it cannot lie.

W. H. Auden

Lying, Mean, Unique

Source: www.guernicamag.com

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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.

W. H. Auden

Sorry, Maturity, Years

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Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another...

W. H. Auden

People, History, Firsts

"The Dyer's Hand". "The Listener" Magazine, June 30, 1955.

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But if a stranger in the train asks me my occupation, I never answer "writer" for fear that he may go on to ask me what I write, and to answer "poetry" would embarrass us both, for we both know that nobody can earn a living simply by writing poetry.

W. H. Auden

Writing, Answers, Goes On

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Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.

W. H. Auden

Healing, Heart, Night

Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"

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Marriage is rarely bliss
But, surely it would be worse
As particles to pelt
At thousands of miles per sec
About a universe
In which a lover's kiss
Would either not be felt
Or break the loved one's neck.

W. H. Auden

Kissing, Would Be, Necks

"After Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics". Poem by W. H. Auden, 1961.

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There is no love;
There are only the various envies, all of them sad.

W. H. Auden

Sadness, Envy, Various

'In Praise of Limestone' (1951) l. 58

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By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

W. H. Auden

Mourning, Tongue, Poet

"In Memory of W. B. Yeats" l. 10 (1940)

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Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

W. H. Auden

Children, Fear, Night

W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.159, DEBOLS!LLO

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I said earlier that I do not believe an artist's life throws much light upon his works. I do believe, however, that, more often than most people realize, his works may throw light upon his life. An artist with certain imaginative ideas in his head may then involve himself in relationships which are congenial to them.

W. H. Auden

Believe, Artist, Ideas

"Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("The Greatest of the Monsters"), (p. 247), 1973.

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In life the loser's score is always zero.

W. H. Auden

Zero, Losing, Loser

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Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. 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. Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day. Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time.

W. H. Auden

Stars, Passion, Dark

W. H. Auden, “The More Loving One”

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W. H. Auden

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Born: February 21, 1907
Died: September 29, 1973
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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