Category W. H. Auden

His aging nature is the same As when childhood wore his name In an atmosphere of love And to itself appeared enough: Only now when he has come In walking distance of his tomb, He at last discovers who He…

Here, though the bombs are real and dangerous, And Italy and King’s are far away, And we’re afraid that you will speak to us, You promise still the inner life shall pay.   As we run down the slope of…

Here are all the captivities; the cells are as real: But these are unlike the prisoners we know Who are outraged or pining or wittily resigned Or just wish all away.   For they dissent so little, so nearly content…

Hell is neither here nor there Hell is not anywhere Hell is hard to bear.   It is so hard to dream posterity Or haunt a ruined century And so much easier to be.   Only the challenge to our…

Hearing of harvests rotting in the valleys, Seeing at end of street the barren mountains. Round corners coming suddenly on water, Knowing them shipwrecked who were launched for islands, We honour founders of these starving cities Whose honour is the…

Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read The Hunter s waking thoughts, lucky the leaf Unable to predict the fall, lucky indeed The rampant suflFering suffocating jelly Burgeoning in pools, lapping the grits of the desert, But what…

Generally, reading palms or handwriting or faces Is a job of translation, since the kind Gentleman often is A seducer, the frowning schoolgirl may Be dying to be asked to stay; But the body of this old lady exactly indicates…

From the very first coming down Into a new valley with a frown Because of the sun and a lost wav, You certainly remained: today I, crouching behind a sheep-pen, heard Travel across a sudden bird, Cry out against the…

From scars where kestrels hover. The leader looking over Into the happy valley, Orchard and curving river. May turn away to see The slow fastidious line That disciplines the fell. Hear curlew’s creaking call From angles unforseen, The drumming of…

For what as easy. For what though small. For what is well Because between. To you simply From me I mean   Who goes with who The bedclothes say As I and you Go kissed away, The data given. The…