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It is 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.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
Author
Composer
Essayist
Librettist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
University Teacher
Writer
Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Fact
Culture
Facts
Art
Practicing
Money
Earn
Writing
Poet
Much
Poetry
Talking

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All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular carnage. The poetic imagination is not at all a desirable quality in a statesman.
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There is a great deal of difference in believing something still, and believing it again.
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Alone, alone, about the dreadful wood / Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, / Dreading to find its Father.
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To be free is often to be lonely.
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Human language is mythological and metaphorical by nature.
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Thou shalt not answer questionnaires Or quizzes upon world affairs, Nor with compliance Take any test. Thou shalt not sit with statisticians nor commit A social science.
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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.
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In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required.
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Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me from wishing it were.
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Time will say nothing but I told you so.
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It's frightening how easy it is to commit murder in America. Just a drink too much. I can see myself doing it. In England, one feels all the social restraints holding one back. But here, anything can happen.
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I don't think the mystical experience can be verbalized. When the ego disappears, so does power over language.
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It's better to say, 'I'm suffering,' than to say, 'This landscape is ugly.
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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.
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The camera may do justice to laughter, but must degrade sorrow.
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The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are taught to draw or paint or write music.
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I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky.
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Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places.
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Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
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