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Encased in talent like a uniform, The rank of every poet is well known They can amaze us like a thunderstorm, Or die so young, or live for years alone.

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
Wells
Uniforms
Well
Poet
Every
Talent
Years
Alone
Encased
Like
Dies
Amaze
Known
Thunderstorm
Young
Rank
Live
Uniform

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History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
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Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
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The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident.
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Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.
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History marched to the drums of a clear idea...
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Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy.
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Let me see what I wrote so I know what I think
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Base words are uttered only by the base And can for such at once be understood But noble platitudes - ah, there's a case Where the most careful scrutiny is needed To tell a voice that's genuinely good From one that's base but merely has succeeded.
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You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people.
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Words have no word for words that are not true.
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All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.
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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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To discover how to be human now is the reason we follow this star.
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Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.
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If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me.
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If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.
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Those who hate to go to bed fear death those who hate to get up fear life.
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Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.
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Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings.
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Now the leaves are falling fast, Nurse's flowers will not last Nurses to their graves are gone, And the prams go rolling on.
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