H. Auden
H. Auden
giving singing sake
The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: "For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages," what just reason could he give for refusing?
absent occasions
What living occasion can, Be just to the absent?
nature woods climate
a culture is no better than its woods
looks crafts leap
Look if you like, but you will have to leap.
optimistic simple hard
To ask the hard question is simple.
faith believe unique
The relation of faith between subject and object is unique in every case. Hundreds may believe, but each has to believe by himself.
children growing-up differences
We do not change as we grow up. The difference between the child and the adult is that the former doesn't know who he is and the latter does.
past cheerful population
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.
silly interesting listening
Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own.
dream lying eye
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.
three matter financial
There are three cardinal rules - don't take somebody else's boyfriend unless you've been specifically invited to do so, don't take a drink without being asked, and keep a scrupulous accounting in financial matters.
jobs acting looks
I don't get acting jobs because of my looks.
hero aces pilots
The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot.
thinking style suffering
Slavery is so intolerable a condition that the slave can hardly escape deluding himself into thinking that he is choosing to obey his master's commands when, in fact, he is obliged to. Most slaves of habit suffer from this delusion and so do some writers, enslaved by an all too personal style.