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As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.

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
Defend
Corruption
Poet
Duty
Language
Political

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To hunt for symbols in a fairy tale is absolutely fatal.
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A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.
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the child unlucky in his little State, Some hearth where freedom is excluded, A hive whose honey is fear and worry, Feels calmer now and somehow assured of escape
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The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.
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Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.
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Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.
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Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.
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Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.
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The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in.
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Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse.
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If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.
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It's better to say, 'I'm suffering,' than to say, 'This landscape is ugly.
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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.
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If it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones Are consistently homesick for, this is chiefly Because it dissolves in water.
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We all have these places where shy humiliations gambol on sunny afternoons.
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Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
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We were put on this Earth to help others. Why others were put here is beyond me.
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Though one cannot always Remember exactly why one has been happy, There is no forgetting that one was.
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One cannot review a bad book without showing off.
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Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.
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