W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Audenwas an English poet, who later became an American citizen. He is best known for love poems such as "Funeral Blues," poems on political and social themes such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles," poems on cultural and psychological themes such as The Age of Anxiety, and poems on religious themes such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae." He was born in York, grew up in and near Birmingham in a professional middle-class...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth21 February 1907
funny music people
No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.
children recipes neurosis
Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear.
rain cake complaining
My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain.
inspirational funny helping-others
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
funny-friendship funny-best-friend differences
Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.
eye stories more-than-meets-the-eye
There's always another story. There's more than meets the eye.
inspirational mind unconscious
The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.
lonely
To be free is often to be lonely.
poetry professors poetry-is
What is a Professor of Poetry? How can poetry be professed?
teacher children war
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation, And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had everything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
love valentines-day rivers
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.
unique men mirrors
Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.
symbols
What we have not named as a symbol escapes our notice.
fate puppets chance
Every high C accurately struck demolishes the theory that we are the irresponsible puppets of fate or chance.