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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.

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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Essayist
Librettist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
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Poet
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University Teacher
Writer
Jórvík
Wystan Hugh Auden
Wystan Auden
Wystan H Auden
W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden
Cities
Mourn
Loved
Weeping
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Voice
Household
Anarchic
Death
Grave
Aphrodite
Graves
Eros
Impulse
Dearly
Dumb
Builder
Rational
Mourning

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Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers.
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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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In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of us is a unique person, with a unique perspective on the world, a member of a class of one.
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I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.
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Composing mortals with immortal fire.
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To be happy means to be free, not from pain or fear, but from care or anxiety.
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Man desires to be free and he desires to feel important. This places him in a dilemma, for the more he emancipates himself from necessity the less important he feels.
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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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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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Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places.
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O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed.
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I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky.
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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.
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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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To read is to translate, for no two persons' experiences are the same. A bad reader is like a bad translator: he interprets literally when he ought to paraphrase and paraphrases when he ought to interpret literally.
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The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience.
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The sky is darkening like a stain Something is going to fall like rain And it won't be flowers
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Few people take an interest in Iceland, but in those few the interest is passionate.
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Drama began as the act of a whole community. Ideally, there would be no speculators. In practice, every member of the audience should feel like an understudy.
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For time is inches And the heart's changes, Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted.
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