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The stars are dead. The animals will not look: We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeated May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.

W. H. Auden

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W. H. Auden
Age: 66 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 21
Died: 1973
Died: September 28
Author
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Literary Critic
Literary Historian
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Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
History
Defeated
Helping
Animals
Left
Short
Cannot
Dead
May
Animal
Look
Alone
Looks
Stars
Pardon
Time
Help
Alas

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Cathedrals, luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.
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In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or today.
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Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read The hunter's waking thoughts.
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Had Greek civilization never existed ... we would never have become fully conscious.
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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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One rational voice is dumb: over a grave The household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved. Sad is Eros, builder of cities, And weeping anarchic Aphrodite.
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There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, ''Did you get an erection?'' If the answer is ''Yes'' from a majority of the twelve, then the book is pornographic.
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Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do.
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