The trees encountered on a country stroll Reveal a lot about that country's soul ... A culture is no better than its woods. — W. H. Auden Country Copy Share Image
“Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.” — W. H. Auden Books Copy Share Image
We till shadowed days are done, We must weep and sing Duty's conscious wrong, The Devil in the clock — W. H. Auden Clock Copy Share Image
A god who is both self-sufficient and content to remain so could not interest us enough to raise the question of his… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so contemptible as the public that buys their… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Aside from purely technical analysis, nothing can be said about music, except when it is bad; when it is good, one can… — W. H. Auden Analysis Copy Share Image
“Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth… — W. H. Auden Indifference Copy Share Image
A small grove massacred to the last ash, An oak with heart-rot, give away the show: This great society is going to… — W. H. Auden Ashes Copy Share Image
You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eyes:… — W. H. Auden Beautiful Copy Share Image
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; How well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone… — W. H. Auden Eating Copy Share Image
If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
We who must die demand a miracle. How could the Eternal do a temporal act, The Infinite become a finite fact? Nothing… — W. H. Auden Demand Copy Share Image
The poet who writes "free" verse is like Robinson Crusoe on his desert island: he must do all his cooking, laundry and… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
To my generation no other English poet seemed so perfectly to express the sensibility of a male adolescent. If I do not… — W. H. Auden Generations Copy Share Image
In addition to English, at least one ancient language, probably Greek or Hebrew, and two modern languages would be required. — W. H. Auden Ancient Copy Share Image
Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists — W. H. Auden Action Copy Share Image
A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he… — W. H. Auden Art Copy Share Image
What answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise one's gifts? — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Sexual fidelity is more important in a homosexual relationship than in any other. In other relationships there are a variety of ties.… — W. H. Auden Fidelity Copy Share Image
In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. — W. H. Auden Art Copy Share Image
Genealogies are admirable things, provided they do not encourage the curious delusion that some families are older than others. — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
