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W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden

Academic Graffiti
Henry Adams
Was mortally afraid of Madams:
In a disorderly house
He sat quiet as a mouse.
 
Mallarmé
Had too much to say:
He could never quite
Leave the paper white.
 
Thomas the Rymer
Was probably a social climber:
He should have known Fairy Queens
Were beyond his means.
 
Paul Valéry
Earned a meagre salary
Walking through the Bois,
Observing his Moi.

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The Dream

Dear, though the night is gone, Its dream still haunts to-day, That brought us to a room Cavernous, lofty as A railway terminus,
Friday's Child

He told us we were free to choose But, children as we were, we thoug… “Paternal Love will only use Force in the last resort On those too bumptious to repent.”
Leda and the Swan, by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Song

Fish in the unruffled lakes Their swarming colors wear, Swans in the winter air A white perfection have, And the great lion walks
Villanelle

Time can say nothing but I told y… Time only knows the price we have… If I could tell you, I would let… If we should weep when clowns put… If we should stumble when musician…
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O What Is That Sound

O what is that sound which so thri… Down in the valley drumming, drumm… Only the scarlet soldiers, dear, The soldiers coming. O what is that light I see flashi…
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Night Mail

This is the night mail crossing th… Bringing the cheque and the postal… Letters for the rich, letters for… The shop at the corner, the girl n… Pulling up Beattock, a steady cli…
Victor

Victor was a little baby, Into this world he came; His father took him on his knee an… 'Don’t dishonour the family name.' Victor looked up at his father
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, by Pieter Brueghel el Viejo
Musee Des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wr… The Old Masters; how well, they u… Its human position; how it takes p… While someone else is eating or op… How, when the aged are reverently,…
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In Praise of Limestone

If it form the one landscape that… Are consistently homesick for, thi… Because it dissolves in water. Ma… With their surface fragrance of th… A secret system of caves and condu…
Like a Vocation

Not as that dream Napoleon, rumou… Before who’s riding all the crowds… Who dedicates a column and withdra… Nor as that general favourite and… To whom the weather and the ruins…
The Riddle

Underneath the leaves of life, Green on the prodigious tree, In a trance of grief Stand the fallen man and wife: Far away the single stag
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As We Like It

Certainly our city with its byres… The river’s edge, its cathedral, i… Here is the cosmopolitan cooking And the light alloys and the glass… Built by the conscience-stricken,…
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Eyes Look into the Well

Eyes look into the well, Tears run down from the eye; The tower cracked and fell From the quiet winter sky. Under a midnight stone
Ruffed Grouse, by John James Audubon
Bird-Language

Trying to understand the words Uttered on all sides by birds, I recognize in what I hear Noises that betoken fear. Thought some of them, I’m certain…
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Lullaby

Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave
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