H. Auden
H. Auden
responsibility machines bills
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair, Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem From insignificance.
hero demise mortals
No hero is mortal till he dies.
ties important fidelity
Sexual fidelity is more important in a homosexual relationship than in any other. In other relationships there are a variety of ties. But here, fidelity is the only bond.
men america special
If we apply the term revolution to what happened in North America between 1776 and 1829, it has a special meaning. Normally, the word describes the process by which man transforms himself from one kind of man, living in one kind of society, with one way of looking at the world, into another kind of man, another society, another conception of life.... The American case is different: it is not a question of the Old Man transforming himself into the New, but of the New Man becoming alive to the fact that he is new, that he has been transformed already without his having realized it.
afterlife water landscape
If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in water.
two greek would-be
In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.
cooking meteorology would-be
Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking.
death philosophical picnics
Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
hell
Nobody is ever sent to Hell: he or she insists on going there.
mean government choices
Ideally, government is the means by which all the individual wills are assured complete freedom of moral choice and at the same time prevented from ever clashing.
love-life men lap
An unmanly sort of man whose love life seems to have been largely confined to crying in laps and playing mouse.
taken hands plot
From beginning to end Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fame had taken the plot out of his own hands.
fire immortal composing
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
photography art skills
It's a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a week. It is the democratic art, i.e. technical skill is practically eliminated - the more foolproof cameras become with focusing and exposure gadgets the better - and artistic quality depends only on choice of subject.