Auden – Poems 1976

Night Mail:

“And none will hear the postman’s knock

Without a quickening of the heart.

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?” (Auden, 1976, p.38).

Death’s Echo

“The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews,

Not to be born is the best for man;

The second –best is a formal order,

The dance’s pattern; dance while you can.

Dance, dance, for the figure is easy,

The tune is catching and will not stop;

Dance till the stars come down from the rafters;

Dance, dance, dance, till you drop.” (Auden, 1976, p.64).

As he is

“Fresh lovers betray him, every day

Over his green horizon

A fresh deserter rides away,

And miles away birds mutter

Of ambush and of treason;

To fresh defeats he still must move,

To further griefs and greater,

And the defeat of grief.”  (Auden, 1976, p.69).

In memory of Y.B. Yeats

“But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,

An afternoon of nurses and rumours;

The provinces of his body revolted,

The squares of his mind were empty,

Silence invaded the suburbs,

The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.” (Auden, 1976, p.76).

Many Happy Returns

“So I wish you first a

Sense of theatre; only

Those who love illusion

And know it will go far:

Otherwise we spend our

Lives in a confusion

Of what we say and do with

Who we really are.” (Auden, 1976, p.117).

“What limping devil sets our

Head and heart at variance,

That each time the Younger

Generation sails,

The old and wheather-beaten

Deny their own experience

And pray the gods to send them

Calm seas, auspicious gales?” (Auden, 1976, p.119).

“Love without desiring

All that you are not.” (Auden, 1976, p.120).

Prime

“Without a name or history I wake

Between my body and the day.” (Auden, 1976, p.196).

“I draw breah; that is of course to wish

No matter what, to be wise,

To be different, to die and the cost,

No matter how, is Paradise

Lost of course and myself owing a death.” (Auden, 1976, p.197).

The cave of making

“… Here silence

is turned into objects.” (Auden, 1976, p.209).

“… I wish you hadn’t

caught that cold, but the dead we miss are easier

to talk to: with those no longer

tensed by problems one cannot feel shy and, anyway,

when playing cards or drinking

or pulling faces are out of the question, what else is there

to do but talk to the voices

of conscience they have become? From now on, as a visitor

who needn’t be met at the station,

your influence is welcome at any hour in my ubiquity.” (Auden, 1976, p.211).

The common life

“… What draws

singular lifes together in the first place,

loneliness, lust, ambition

or mere convenience, is obvious, why they drop

or murder one another

clear enough: how they create, though, a common world

between them, like Bombelli’s

impossible yet useful numbers, no one

has yet explained. …” (Auden, 1976, p.225).

A change of air

“To go Elsewhere is to withdraw from movement;

A side-step, a short one, will convey you thither.” (Auden, 1976, p.227).

On the circuit

“Spirit is willing to repeat

Without a qualm the same old talk,

But Flesh is homesick for our snug

Apartment in New York.

A sulky fifty-six, he finds

A change of meal time utter hell,

Grown far too crotchety to like

A luxury hotel.” (Auden, 1976, p.230).

Lullaby

“Let your last thinks all be thanks.” (Auden, 1976, p.245).

Archaeology

“Knowledge may have its purposes,

but guessing is always

more fun than knowing.” (Auden, 1976, p.249).