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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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Around them boomed the rhetoric of… The smells and furniture of the kn… Where conscience worshipped an aes… And what was unsuccessful was cond… And, at the centre of its vast sel…
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I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade:
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Again in conversations Speaking of fear And throwing off reserve The voice is nearer But no clearer
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