Auden Quote by Sylvia Plath
“The lyric abstrusities of Auden ring mystically down the circular canals of my ear and it begins to look like snow. The good gray conservative obliterating snow. Smoothing (in one white lacy euphemism after another) out all the black bleak angular unangelic nauseous ugliness of the blasted sterile world: dry buds, shrunken stone houses, dead vertical moving people all all all go under the great white beguiling wave. And come out transformed. Lose yourself in a numb dumb snow-daubed lattice of crystal and come out pure with the white virginal veneer you never had.”
About This Quote
Source Poem: The Snow Lattice, 1965
The poem transforms bleakness into pure, white renewal, suggesting rebirth through surrender to the sublime.
In simple terms: Bleakness becomes pure renewal.
Key Takeaway
Surrender to transform.
Themes
transformation
purity
despair
rebirth
Mood
introspective
haunting
Type
poetic
philosophical
When to use this quote
- writing
- artistic expression
- personal healing
Key Concepts
symbolism
metaphor
aesthetic catharsis
Questions to Reflect On
- What does the white wave symbolize for you?
- How can you find beauty in hardship?
A Different Perspective
Idealizing purity may ignore necessary darkness.
