Home > Work > Collected Shorter Poems, 1927-1957
1 " As mile by mile is seenNo trespasser's reproach,And love's best glasses reachNo fields but are his own. "
― W.H. Auden , Collected Shorter Poems, 1927-1957
2 " The More Loving OneLooking up at the stars, I know quite wellThat, for all they care, I can go to hell,But on earth indifference is the leastWe have to dread from man or beast.How should we like it were stars to burnWith a passion for us we could not return?If equal affection cannot be,Let the more loving one be me.Admirer as I think I amOf stars that do not give a damn,I cannot, now I see them, sayI missed one terribly all day.Were all stars to disappear or die,I should learn to look at an empty skyAnd feel its total dark sublime,Though this might take me a little time. "
3 " To-morrow the rediscovery of romantic love,The photographing of ravens; all the fun under Liberty's masterful shadow;To-morrow the hour of the pageant-master and the musician,The beautiful roar of the chorus under the dome;To-morrow the exchanging of tips on the breeding of terriers, The eager election of chairmenBy the sudden forest of hands. But to-day the struggle,To-morrow for the young poets exploding like bombs,The walks by the lake, the weeks of perfect communion; To-morrow the bicycle racesThrough the suburbs on summer evenings. But to-day the struggle.To-day the deliberate increase in the chances of death,The conscious acceptance of guilt in the necessary murder; To-day the expending of powersOn the flat ephemeral pamphlet and the boring meeting,Today the makeshift consolations: the shared cigarette,The cards in the candlelit barn, and the scraping concert, The masculine jokes; to-day theFumbled and unsatisfactory embrace before hurting.The stars are dead. The animals will not look. We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and History to the defeatedMay say alas but cannot help or pardon. "
