Quote

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

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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
Cannot
Reach
Stalking
Doe
Masters
Plain
Men
Speech
Hips
Gushes
Among
Prize
Ogre
Beyond
Desperate
Subjugated
Quite
Deeds
Stalks
Impossible
Master
Drivel
Hands
Lips
Slain

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Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.
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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.
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My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain.
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All wishes, whatever their apparent content, have the same and unvarying meaning: I refuse to be what I am.
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We are not commanded (or forbidden) to love our mates, our children, our friends, our country because such affections come naturally to us and are good in themselves, although we may corrupt them. We are commanded to love our neighbor because our natural attitude toward the other is one of either indifference or hostility.
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There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair, Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem From insignificance.
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Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist.
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A verbal art like poetry is reflective it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.
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Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one
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Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate.
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Human beings are, necessarily, actors who...can be divided...into the sane who know they are acting and the mad who do not.
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All good art is in the nature of a letter written to amuse a sick friend. Too much art, particularly in our time, is only a letter written to oneself.
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I don't get acting jobs because of my looks.
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Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay If I could tell you I would let you know.
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Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease.
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In life the loser's score is always zero.
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A writer is a maker, not a man of action: his private life is of no concern to anybody but himself, his family and his friends.
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May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that 'faith' is even more difficult for Him than it is for us?
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It's impossible to represent a saint [in Art]. It becomes boring. Perhaps because he is, like the Saturday Evening Post people, inthe position of having almost infinitely free will.
W. H. Auden
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The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews Not to be born is the best for man The second best is a formal order The dance's pattern, dance while you can. Dance, dance, for the figure is easy The tune is catching and will not stop Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, dance, dance till you drop.
W. H. Auden