"A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.












And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.
More W. H. Auden quotes
"You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.
"Small tyrants, threatened by big,sincerely believethey love liberty.
"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.
"What is peculiar and novel to our age is that the principal goal of politics in every advanced society is not, strictly speaking, a political one, tha...
"Poetry makes nothing happen.
"In the prison of his daysTeach the free man how to praise
"I will love you forever" swears the poet. I find this easy to swear too. "I will love you at 4:15 pm next Tuesday" - Is that still as easy?
"When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.
"The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are tau...
"Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
"Say this city has ten million souls,Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place f...
"In most poetic expressions of patriotism, it is impossible to distinguish what is one of the greatest human virtues from the worst human vice, collect...
"We would rather be ruined than changedWe would rather die in our dreadThan climb the cross of the momentAnd let our illusions die.
"Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs.