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W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden Quotes

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“The true men of action in our time those who transform the world are not the politicians and statesmen but the scientists. Unfortunately poetry cannot celebrate them because their deeds are concerned with things, not persons, and are therefore speechless. When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.”

MenWorldFeelsPersonsArtActionScienceRoomsMistakeCompanyPoliticianConcernedScientistDeedsDrawingCelebrateOur TimeStatesmenDukesTrue ManSpeechlessShabby
Author:W. H. Auden
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“Warm are the still and lucky miles, White shores of longing stretch away, A light of recognition fills The whole great day, and bright The tiny world of lovers' arms. Silence invades the breathing wood Where drowsy limbs a treasure keep, Now greenly falls the learned shade Across the sleeping brows And stirs their secret to a smile. Restored! Returned! The lost are borne On seas of shipwreck home at last: See! In a fire of praising burns The dry dumb past, and we Our life-day long shall part no more.”

WorldLongStillsWholeHomeLightLastsPastFallLostSleepWhiteSecretSilenceFireOur LivesSeaArmsLoversLuckyPraiseLongingWoodsWarmTinyMilesTreasureRecognitionDumbBreathingDryShoreShadeLimbsBrowsGreat DayShipwreckDrowsy
Author:W. H. Auden
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“Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough; Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.”

WorldHumansHeartMayEnoughShowsDreamEyeNightDiesVisionWindRoundsBlowWelcomeMortalsDawnInsultFedsBlessMidnightNoonKnockingInvoluntaryHuman Love
Author:W. H. Auden
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“As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: 'Love has no ending. 'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, '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.”

StarsHeardSkyStreetsLove YouFieldsLoversWalkingMountainOceanRiversSevenDearCrowdsChinaEveningDryHungHarvestWheatGeeseArchesPavementRailwaySalmonBristol
Author:W. H. Auden
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“That the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.”

ShouldHumansSelfHandsSeemsIndividualLanguageHuman BeingsCommonExistenceQualityHairSpeechDrawsRedConvincedConclusionOddCharacteristicsExceptionUniquenessEnglish LanguageClassificationDisclosureRed HairSelf Disclosure
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“A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: “Whom do you write for?” The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.”

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“I am sure it is everyone’s experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious recognition of something, which we really knew all the time but, because we were unwilling to formulate it correctly, we did not hitherto know we knew.”

KnowsHas BeensLife IsMinesConsciousDiscoveryRecognitionMeaning Of LifeLife ExperienceUnwillingScientific Discovery
Author:W. H. Auden
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