Quote

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.

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
Enough
Respect
Fairs
Etc
Tyrannical
Giving
Results
Fair
Household
Rhymes
Like
Winning
Master
Servant
Dishonest
Happy
Forms
Notice
Meter
Art
Result
Firm
Lacks
Stanza
Form
Masters
Drunk
Orderly
Slovenly
Become
Authority
Command
Servants
Impertinent
Give
Poetry
Affection
Rhyme
Meters

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There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think that , as a rule, a poet should read them.
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The most difficult problem in personal knowledge, whether of oneself or of others, is the problem of guessing when to think as a historian and when to think as an anthropologist.
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Moreover, if great men are the only hope of the Evolutionary Process, they are morally bound to rule over the masses for their own good -- we are all here on earth to help others: what on earth the others are here for, I don't know -- and the masses have no right whatsoever to resist them.
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Most people call something profound, not because it is near some important truth but because it is distant from ordinary life. Thus, darkness is profound to the eye, silence to the ear what-is-not is the profundity of what-is.
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Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.
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Each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
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The critical opinions of a writer should always be taken with a large grain of salt. For the most part, they are manifestations of his debate with himself as to what he should do next and what he should avoid.
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The class distinctions proper to a democratic society are not those of rank or money, still less, as is apt to happen when these are abandoned, of race, but of age.
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Pleasure is by no means an infallible critical guide, but it is the least fallible.
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Drama is based on the Mistake.
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A poem is a verbal artifact which must be as skillfully and solidly constructed as a table or a motorcycle.
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History marched to the drums of a clear idea...
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We were put on this earth to make things.
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To have a sense of sin means to feel guilty at there being an ethical choice to make, a guilt which, however good I may become, remains unchanged.
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And none will hear the postman’s knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
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Look if you like, but you will have to leap.
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The trees encountered on a country stroll Reveal a lot about that country's soul ... A culture is no better than its woods.
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Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye.
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I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.
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Lovers have lived so long with giants and elves, they won't believe again in their own size.
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