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Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.

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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Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
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More quotes by W. H. Auden

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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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The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it.
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You must go to bed with friends or whores, where money makes up the difference in beauty or desire.
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You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.
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The lights must never go out, The music must always play
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There are good books which are only for adults. There are no good books which are only for children.
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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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Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead.
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Caesar's double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes i do not like my work On a pink official form.
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There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.
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Water is the soul of the Earth.
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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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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.
W. H. Auden
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I used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated.
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You will be a poet because you will always be humiliated.
W. H. Auden
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To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself.
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Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self.
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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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In a game, just losing is almost as satisfying as just winning... In life the loser's score is always zero.
W. H. Auden
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No person can be a great leader unless he takes genuine joy in the successes of those under him.
W. H. Auden