W. H. Auden Quotes - Page 12

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• Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links, Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks, Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.

  W. H. Auden

  Eye, Men, Looks

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• Time will say nothing but I told you so.

  W. H. Auden

  Time, Told You So

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• a culture is no better than its woods

  W. H. Auden

  Nature, Woods, Climate

  Shield of Achilles (1955) "Bucolics"

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• Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose.

  W. H. Auden

  Listening, Prose, Remarks

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• Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.

  W. H. Auden

  Healing, Heart, Night

  Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"

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• Let me see what I wrote so I know what I think

  W. H. Auden

  Thinking, Let Me, Knows

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• It has been said that a poem should not mean but be. This is not quite accurate. In a poem, as distinct from many other kinds of verbal societies, meaning and being are identical. A poem might be called a pseudo-person. Like a person, it is unique and addresses the reader personally. On the other hand, like a natural being and unlike a historical person, it cannot lie.

  W. H. Auden

  Lying, Mean, Unique

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• 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...

  W. H. Auden

  People, History, Firsts

  "The Dyer's Hand". "The Listener" Magazine, June 30, 1955.

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• Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest.

  W. H. Auden

  Art, Winning, Drunk

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• We must love one another or die

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Philosophy, Educational

  "September 1, 1939" l. 88 (1939). In a 1955 printing of the poem Auden changed this to "love one another and die."

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• It's a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a week. It is the democratic art, i.e. technical skill is practically eliminated - the more foolproof cameras become with focusing and exposure gadgets the better - and artistic quality depends only on choice of subject.

  W. H. Auden

  Photography, Art, Skills

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• Hunger allows no choice.

  W. H. Auden

  Choices, Hunger

  'September 1, 1939' (1940)

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• Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

  W. H. Auden

  Dog, Grief, Cutting

  "Funeral Blues" l. 1 (1936)

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• The Ogre does what ogres can,
  Deeds quite impossible for Man,
  But one prize is beyond his reach,
  The Ogre cannot master Speech:
  About a subjugated plain,
  Among its desperate and slain,
  The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,
  While drivel gushes from his lips.

  W. H. Auden

  Men, Hands, Doe

  "August 1968". Poem by W. H. Auden,

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• 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?

  W. H. Auden

  Giving, Singing, Sake

  "The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays" by W. H. Auden, ("Writing"), (p. 27), 1962.

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• Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one

  W. H. Auden

  Men, Honor, Horizontal

  'To Christopher Isherwood' (1930)

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• To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why?

  W. H. Auden

  Death, War, Men

  Shield of Achilles (1955) "Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier"

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• All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him.

  W. H. Auden

  Art, Believe, Simple

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• Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me from wishing it were.

  W. H. Auden

  Sensual, Wish, Desire

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• Blessed be all metrical rules that forbid automatic responses, force us to have second thoughts, free us from the fetters of Self.

  W. H. Auden

  Blessed, Self, Force

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• A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into a desire to express that awe in a rite of worship.

  W. H. Auden

  Art, Creativity, Desire

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• One can only blaspheme if one believes.

  W. H. Auden

  Believe, Ifs

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("Concerning the Unpredictable"), (p. 472), 1973.

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• 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.

  W. H. Auden

  Silly, Interesting, Listening

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• Machines have no political opinions, but they have profound political effects. They demand a strict regimentation of time, and, by abolishing the need for manual skill, have transformed the majority of the population from workers into laborers. There are, that is to say, fewer and fewer jobs which a man can find a pride and satisfaction in doing well, more and more which have no interest in themselves and can be valued only for the money they provide.

  W. H. Auden

  Jobs, Pride, Men

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("A Russian Aesthete"), (p. 279), 1973.

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• To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however "good" I may become, remains unchanged.

  W. H. Auden

  Mean, Choices, Guilt

  "The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays" by W. H. Auden, ("The Guilty Vicarage"), (p. 157), 1962.

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