W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 17

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• We till shadowed days are done,
  We must weep and sing
  Duty's conscious wrong,
  The Devil in the clock

  W. H. Auden

  Work, Devil, Done

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.83, DEBOLS!LLO

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• It takes little talent to see what lies under one's nose, a good deal to know in what direction to point that organ.

  W. H. Auden

  Lying, Noses, Littles

  11 Copy quote

• A god who is both self-sufficient and content to remain so could not interest us enough to raise the question of his existence.

  W. H. Auden

  Self, Enough, Existence

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("The Greeks and Us"), (p. 15), 1973.

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• Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art.

  W. H. Auden

  Art, Stories, Detectives

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• Caesar's double-bed is warm
  As an unimportant clerk
  Writes i do not like my work
  On a pink official form.

  W. H. Auden

  Work, Writing, Clerks

  W. H. Auden, “The Fall Of Rome”

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• Does God judge us by appearances? I Suspect that He does.

  W. H. Auden

  Judging, Doe, Appearance

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• Time and fevers burn away
  Individual beauty from
  Thoughtful children, and the grave
  Proves the child ephemeral

  W. H. Auden

  Death, Children, Thoughtful

  'Another Time' (1940) no. 18, p. 43

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• Composing mortals with immortal fire.

  W. H. Auden

  Fire, Immortal, Composing

  'Three Songs for St Cecilia's Day' (1941)

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• The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow.

  W. H. Auden

  Laughter, Justice, Sorrow

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• Warm are the still and lucky miles, White shores of longing stretch away, A light of recognition fills The whole great day, and bright The tiny world of lovers' arms. Silence invades the breathing wood Where drowsy limbs a treasure keep, Now greenly falls the learned shade Across the sleeping brows And stirs their secret to a smile. Restored! Returned! The lost are borne On seas of shipwreck home at last: See! In a fire of praising burns The dry dumb past, and we Our life-day long shall part no more.

  W. H. Auden

  Fall, Sleep, Home

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• If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.

  W. H. Auden

  Horse, Gun, Wicked

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• Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.

  W. H. Auden

  Fate, Dark, Sea

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.46, DEBOLS!LLO

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• Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy.

  W. H. Auden

  Grieving, Fog, World

  Age of Anxiety (1947) p. 104

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• There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
  Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
  From insignificance.

  W. H. Auden

  Responsibility, Verbs, Machines

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• Swans in the winter air
  A white perfection have

  W. H. Auden

  Winter, Swans, Air

  40 Copy quote

• Long ago the accusations had begun,
  And suddenly knew by whom it had been judged

  W. H. Auden

  Long Ago, Judgment, Accusation

  W. H. Auden, “In Memory Of Sigmund Freud”

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• the child unlucky in his little State,
  Some hearth where freedom is excluded,
  A hive whose honey is fear and worry,
  Feels calmer now and somehow assured of escape

  W. H. Auden

  Children, Fear, Worry

  W. H. Auden, “In Memory Of Sigmund Freud”

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• The habit-forming pain,
  Mismanagement and grief:
  We must suffer them all again.

  W. H. Auden

  Pain, Grief, Suffering

  W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”

  9 Copy quote

• For time is inches
  And the heart's changes,
  Where ghost has haunted
  Lost and wanted.

  W. H. Auden

  Time, Heart, Ghost

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• Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; whatfrom the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer.

  W. H. Auden

  Jobs, Work, Men

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• Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly,
  The spot on your skin is a shocking disease.

  W. H. Auden

  Skins, Disease, Behind You

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• If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones
  Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly
  Because it dissolves in water.

  W. H. Auden

  Afterlife, Water, Landscape

  W.H. Auden (2016). “Canción de cuna y otros poemas”, p.257, DEBOLS!LLO

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• But he would have us most of all remember to be enthusiastic over the night. Not only for the sense of wonder it alone has to offer but also because it needs our love. For with sad eyes its delectable creatures look up and beg us dumbly to ask them to follow. They are exiles who long for a future that lies in our power.

  W. H. Auden

  Dream, Lying, Eye

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• As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: 'Love has no ending. 'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, 'I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky.

  W. H. Auden

  Stars, Ocean, Love You

  Another Time (1940) "As I Walked Out One Evening"

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• Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.

  W. H. Auden

  Hurt, Mad, Ireland

  "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" l. 32 (1940)

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