H. Auden
H. Auden
alas alone animals cannot defeated help history left short stars time
The stars are dead; the animals will not look:/ We are left alone with our day, and the time is short and / History to the defeated / May say Alas but cannot help or pardon.
past men history
Man is a history-making creature, who can neither repeat his past, nor leave it behind.
history people complaining
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.
history answers study
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
children hero history
Political history is far too criminal to be a fit subject of study for the young. Children should acquire their heroes and villians from fiction.
faces nicer places private public wiser
Private faces in public places / Are wiser and nicer / Than public faces in private places.
becoming danger few forgotten grave life poor study today
Poor Poe! At first so forgotten that his grave went without a tomb-stone twenty-six years. . . today in danger of becoming the life study of a few professors.
believe character children disease judges last stage true
Only those in the last stage of disease could believe that children are true judges of character.
architecture change house shining styles
Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at / New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
technique crafts sincerity
Sincerity is technique.
curate full room science shabby
When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes.
art culture earn fact money poet practicing sad talking
It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.
english-poet
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
voice
All I have is a voice.