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Clear, unscaleable ahead, Rise the mountains of instead From whose cold, cascading streams None may drink except in dreams
W. H. Auden
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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
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Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Dream
Mountain
May
Except
Whose
Cascading
Dreams
Mountains
Drink
Streams
Cold
Ahead
Instead
Rise
Clear
None
More quotes by W. H. Auden
What the poet says has never been said before, but, once he has said it, his readers recognize its validity for themselves.
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A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting he must also believe it to be true.
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How happy the lot of the mathematician. He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve.
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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.
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To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself.
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No hero is mortal till he dies.
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Swans in the winter air A white perfection have
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Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.
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In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.
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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?
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A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.
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All the literati keep An imaginary friend.
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Those to whom evil is doneDo evil in return.
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For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted.
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Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers.
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Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others.
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The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.
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I will love you forever swears the poet. I find this easy to swear too. I will love you at 4:15 pm next Tuesday - Is that still as easy?
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Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.
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Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
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