A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. W. H. Auden More Quotes by W. H. Auden More Quotes From W. H. Auden The parlour cars and Pullmans are packed also with scented assassins, salad-eaters who murder on milk. W. H. Auden assassins salad car Blessed be all metrical rules that forbid automatic responses, force us to have second thoughts, free us from the fetters of Self. W. H. Auden force blessed self I don't get acting jobs because of my looks. W. H. Auden acting jobs looks Words are for those with promises to keep. W. H. Auden promise Detective stories have nothing to do with works of art. W. H. Auden detectives stories art Christ did not enchant men; He demanded that they believe in Him: except on one occasion, the Transfiguration. For a brief while, Peter, James, and John were permitted to see Him in His glory. For that brief while they had no need of faith. The vision vanished, and the memory of it did not prevent them from all forsaking Him when He was arrested, or Peter from denying that he had ever known Him. W. H. Auden men memories believe Let us honor if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one W. H. Auden horizontal honor men The chances are that, in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor, simply because major poets write a lot. W. H. Auden chance lifetime writing If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It will get away with anything, while age Knows only too well that it has got away with nothing. W. H. Auden wicked age believe Poetry is the only art people haven't learned to consume like soup. W. H. Auden poetry people art In a game, just losing is almost as satisfying as just winning... In life the loser's score is always zero. W. H. Auden zero games winning Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it. W. H. Auden dog missing religion A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into a desire to express that awe in a rite of worship. W. H. Auden creativity desire art Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest. W. H. Auden drunk winning art Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose. W. H. Auden prose remarks listening Alone, alone, about the dreadful wood / Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, / Dreading to find its Father. W. H. Auden loneliness running father What is a Professor of Poetry? How can poetry be professed? W. H. Auden professors poetry-is poetry Few can remember W. H. Auden innocence remember firsts You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eyes: a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon making a primary incision, a clerk completing a bill of lading wear the same rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a function. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-obje ct look. W. H. Auden eye expression beautiful Defenceless under the night W. H. Auden dust night lying
