2 ms·

September 1, 1939 by WH Auden (on hearing war had broken out)

15 points by pyuser583 5y ago

codevark 5y ago
One of the most amazing poems ever written. Auden rules.
vba616 5y ago
"America has many faults, one of the worst being that Americans always want answers to everything, and when you tell them there aren’t any, are very upset. But when they are in a tough spot they do look forward, unlike the English who the worse things get, the more passionately do they cling to the past. I have almost definitely decided now to become an American citizen."
vba616 5y ago
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-wh-auden-hated-his-most-famous-political-poems https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-wh-auden-hated-his-most-fa... >Auden was forever concerned with the plight of refugees and the displaced, whether they were fleeing Hitler, Franco, Stalin or the general carnage of postwar Europe. Democratic nations always turned them away for the same reason—and still do: “Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said; ‘If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread’: He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.”
motohagiography 5y ago
Funny thing about poetry, as an artform, it's defined by the necssary condition that by the time we are able to fully appreciate it, it's already too late. It's like a form of comedy, but instead of punchlines you get these wryly buried landmines that you only appreciate in a future where you've stepped on one, and it's a very different kind of laughter. Sometimes when I read Auden, I wonder if he was really writing a kind of curse for us to discover just in the moment where it clicks that we are here because we have failed to take heed. Poignant, anyway.
- pyuser583 5y ago
  Auden ended up hating this poem. He refused to have it published. Eventually he relented, but demanded a disclaimer saying her rejected the poem and regreted writing. One of his complaints was that “we must love each other or die” is stupid because we all die regardless. I think he buried some landmines so deep that he ended up stepping on them.

15 points by pyuser583 5y ago

One of the most amazing poems ever written. Auden rules.

"America has many faults, one of the worst being that Americans always want answers to everything, and when you tell them there aren’t any, are very upset. But when they are in a tough spot they do look forward, unlike the English who the worse things get, the more passionately do they cling to the past. I have almost definitely decided now to become an American citizen."

vba616 5y ago

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-wh-auden-hated-his-most-famous-political-poems https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-wh-auden-hated-his-most-fa... >Auden was forever concerned with the plight of refugees and the displaced, whether they were fleeing Hitler, Franco, Stalin or the general carnage of postwar Europe. Democratic nations always turned them away for the same reason—and still do: “Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said; ‘If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread’: He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.”

motohagiography 5y ago

Funny thing about poetry, as an artform, it's defined by the necssary condition that by the time we are able to fully appreciate it, it's already too late. It's like a form of comedy, but instead of punchlines you get these wryly buried landmines that you only appreciate in a future where you've stepped on one, and it's a very different kind of laughter. Sometimes when I read Auden, I wonder if he was really writing a kind of curse for us to discover just in the moment where it clicks that we are here because we have failed to take heed. Poignant, anyway.

pyuser583 5y ago
Auden ended up hating this poem. He refused to have it published. Eventually he relented, but demanded a disclaimer saying her rejected the poem and regreted writing. One of his complaints was that “we must love each other or die” is stupid because we all die regardless. I think he buried some landmines so deep that he ended up stepping on them.