H. Auden
H. Auden
appreciation men imagination
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.
believe age wicked
If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It will get away with anything, while age Knows only too well that it has got away with nothing.
men desire important
Man desires to be free and he desires to feel important. This places him in a dilemma, for the more he emancipates himself from necessity the less important he feels.
art people poetry
Poetry is the only art people haven't learned to consume like soup.
zero winning games
In a game, just losing is almost as satisfying as just winning... In life the loser's score is always zero.
mean pleasure guides
Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible.
dog missing religion
Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it.
self enough existence
A god who is both self-sufficient and content to remain so could not interest us enough to raise the question of his existence.
poetry poet humiliated
You will be a poet because you will always be humiliated.
winter white swans
Swans in the winter air A white perfection have
work writing clerks
Caesar's double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes i do not like my work On a pink official form.
fear children night
Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good.
time heart ghost
For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted.
pain grief suffering
The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again.