WIST Quotations

Auden, W. H. -- “Base Words Are Uttered Only by the Base,” ll. 1-5 (1940)

Dave — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:23:20 +0000

Base words are uttered only by the base
And can for such at once be understood;
But noble platitudes — ah, there’s a case
Where the most careful scrutiny is needed
To tell a voice that’s genuinely good
From one that’s base but merely has succeeded.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Base Words Are Uttered Only by the Base,” ll. 1-5 (1940)

Auden, W. H. -- “Concerning the Unpredictable,” Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

Dave — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 22:47:32 +0000

One can only blaspheme if one believes.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Concerning the Unpredictable,” Forewords and Afterwords (1973)
(Source)

Auden, W. H. -- “Herman Melville” (1939)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Evil is unspectacular and always human
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Herman Melville” (1939)
(Source)

Auden, W. H. -- “Musée des Beaux Arts” (1940)

Dave — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:56:39 +0000

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Musée des Beaux Arts” (1940)

Full text.

Auden, W. H. -- “One of the Family” (1965), Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

Dave — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 21:45:50 +0000

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them — the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“One of the Family” (1965), Forewords and Afterwords (1973)
(Source)

Auden, W. H. -- “Shorts,” No. 7 (c. 1930), Collected Poems, Part 2 “1927-1932” (1976 ed.) [ed. Mendelson]

Dave — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:48:07 +0000

Those who will not reason
Perish in the act:
Those who will not act
Perish for that reason.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Shorts,” No. 7 (c. 1930), Collected Poems, Part 2 “1927-1932” (1976 ed.) [ed. Mendelson]
(Source)

Auden, W. H. -- “Spain,” l. 101-104 (1937)

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:56:35 +0000

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 nor pardon.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Spain,” l. 101-104 (1937)

Auden, W. H. -- “Spain,” ll. 81-92 (1937)

Dave — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:25:24 +0000

To-morrow for the young the poets exploding like bombs,
The walks by the lake, the weeks of perfect communion;
To-morrow the bicycle races
Through the suburbs on summer evenings. But to-day the struggle.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Spain,” ll. 81-92 (1937)

Auden, W. H. -- “Squares and Oblongs” (1948)

Dave — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:48:00 +0000

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Squares and Oblongs” (1948)

Auden, W. H. -- “Stop All the Clocks [Funeral Blues],” st. 3 (1936)

Dave — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:51:26 +0000

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Stop All the Clocks [Funeral Blues],” st. 3 (1936)
(Source)

This stanza is not in the original version of the poem, for the verse play The Ascent of F6 (1936) (with Christopher Isherwood).

Instead, it appears in the revised cabaret song that Auden wrote in 1937-1938. It is this latter version, less tied to the play, that is commonly collected, and that gained popularity when recited in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

Auden, W. H. -- “The Dyer’s Hand” (1955)

Dave — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:15:12 +0000

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; they might also ask themselves how much poetry of any period they can honestly say that they understand.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“The Dyer’s Hand” (1955)

Published in The Listener (30 Jun 1955)

Auden, W. H. -- “The I Without a Self,” The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays (1962)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“The I Without a Self,” The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays (1962)

Sometimes misattributed to Franz Kafka.

Auden, W. H. -- “The More Loving One,” ll. 8-12 (1957)

Dave — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:55:13 +0000

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“The More Loving One,” ll. 8-12 (1957)

Auden, W. H. -- The Age of Anxiety, Part 6 [Malin] (1948)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We would rather be ruined than changed,
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
The Age of Anxiety, Part 6 [Malin] (1948)
(Source)

Auden, W. H. -- The Ascent of F6, Act II, sc. v [with Christpher Isherwood] (1936)

Dave — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:58:21 +0000

Acts of injustice done
Between the setting and the rising sun
In history lie like bones, each one.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
The Ascent of F6, Act II, sc. v [with Christpher Isherwood] (1936)

Auden, W. H. -- The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays, “Postscript: The Frivolous & the Earnest” (1962)

Dave — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:53:32 +0000

No human being can make another one happy.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays, “Postscript: The Frivolous & the Earnest” (1962)

Auden, W. H. -- The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays, Part 7 “The Shield of Perseus,” “Notes on the Comic” (1962)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays, Part 7 “The Shield of Perseus,” “Notes on the Comic” (1962)
(Source)

Auden, W. H. -- The Dyer’s Hand, and Other Essays (1968)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
The Dyer’s Hand, and Other Essays (1968)

Auden, W. H. -- Twelve Songs, Number 9 (1936)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
Twelve Songs, Number 9 (1936)