W.H. Auden: Lullaby
Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children
Baron Wormser: The System
Humankind never has been very aware of the consequences of their group actions, perhaps because large groups, in particular, are inherently thoughtless.
Michelle Bitting: In the Museum of the Dream Where I Am Falling from the Sky
And waking, realize I’ve gotten my suffering all wrong.
W.H. Auden: At Last the Secret is Out
At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end,
The delicious story is ripe to tell to the intimate friend;
Edward Thomas: Rain
Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Joan E. Bauer: For Auden — Circling Toward Home
Art, you claimed: born of humiliation.
You knew that early & you had the gift
of double focus, of seeing the world
with more than one lens.
Chard DeNiord: At Auden’s Grave, September 1, 2016
“We must love one another or die.” — W.H. Auden What caused you to think it was a lie, Old Master—that either/or that gave you pause in “September 1, … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Dramatic Monologue — Joseph Brodsky
We tap dance down the highway. There’s an exit. Who made me a pharoah? Dare I gesture — or reach for a cigarette? Shouldn’t I be on the banks … Continue reading
W.H. Auden: September 1, 1939
“We must love one another or die.” Today W.H. Auden’s poem September 1, 1939 resonates more than ever. First published in The New Republic in October 1939, it marks the … Continue reading
W. H. Auden: Refugee Blues
Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.
Jim Sleeper: Gazing Into the Abyss
Long before the final results, many Americans knew that our body politic had suffered a seizure after being injected with a poison that nothing in Hillary Clinton’s politics was potent … Continue reading
Audio: W.H. Auden reads “The Shield of Achilles”
. W.H. Auden’s “The Shield of Achilles” written in 1952, is the title poem of the collection that won the 1955 National Book Award. The poem is composed in alternating … Continue reading
Audio: ‘Musee de Beaux Arts’ read by W.H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position
Video: “1st September 1939” by W.H. Auden
The date marked the moment when Germany invaded Poland, initiating the start of World War II. “September 1, 1939″ was originally published in The New Republic on October 18, 1939. … Continue reading
