WORDS 1. What is one to make of a life given to putting things into words, saying them, writing them down? Is there a world beyond words? There is. But don’t start, don’t go on about the tree unqualified, standing in the light that shines to time’s end beyond its summoning name. Don’t praise…
Verse nine Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden…
How many years since you’ve remembered the lyrics of White Rabbit, or listened to the tune? Grace Slick belted out her anthem of resistance at a time when American young men were asked to kill Vietnamese young men, in the jungles and villages of Vietnam. At the time one line of resistance to official…
Verse eight All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or…
Verse Seven From the conservative dark Into the ethical life The dense commuters come, Repeating their morning vow; ‘I will be true to the wife, I’ll concentrate more on my work,’ And helpless governors wake To resume their compulsory game: Who can release them now, Who can reach the dead, Who can speak for…
Verse Six The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart; For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have, Not universal love But to be loved alone….
Verse five Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, The music must always play, All the conventions conspire To make this fort assume The furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have…
Verse four Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse: But who can live for long In an euphoric dream; Out of the mirror they stare, Imperialism’s face And the international wrong. September 1, 1939 by W….
Verse three Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About Democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book, The enlightenment driven away, The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again. September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden…
Verse two Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther until now That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz, What huge imago made A psychopathic god: I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. September 1, 1949 by…
