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
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.
car assassins salad
The parlour cars and Pullmans are packed also with scented assassins, salad-eaters who murder on milk.
life fate species
Fate succumbs many a species: one alone jeopardises itself.
money book confession
Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so contemptible as the public that buys their books.
happiness
No being can make another one happy.
cat way glad
Cats can be very funny, and have the oddest ways of showing they're glad to see you...