Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do. |
History is the ship carrying living memories to the future |
I think of those who were truly great. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire's center. |
I'm struggling at the end to get out of the valley of hectoring youth, journalistic middle age, imposture, moneymaking, public relations, bad writing, mental confusion. |
I'm struggling at the end to get out of the valley of hectoring youth, journalistic middle age, imposture, moneymaking, public relations, bad writing, mental confusion. |
Moments that can never happen again and never lost their wonder. |
Never allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog the flowering of the spirit |
People sometimes divide others into those you laugh at and those you laugh with. The young Auden was someone you could laugh-at-with. |
The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness. |
There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife - a tyrannical midwife. |
When a child, my dreams rode on your wishes, / I was your son, high on your horse, / My mind a top whipped by the lashes / Of your rhetoric, windy of course. |
When you read and understand a poem, comprehending its rich and formal meanings, then you master chaos a little. |
Who live under the shadow of a war,/ What can I do that matters? |