W. H. Auden Night Poems
- 1. Who's Who
A shilling life will give you all the facts:
How Father beat him, how he ran away,
What were the struggles of his youth, what acts
Made him the greatest figure of his day;
... - 2. Voltaire At Ferney
Almost happy now, he looked at his estate.
An exile making watches glanced up as he passed,
And went on working; where a hospital was rising fast
A joiner touched his cap; an agent came to tell
... - 3. The Two
You are the town and we are the clock.
We are the guardians of the gate in the rock.
The Two.
On your left and on your right
... - 4. September 1, 1939
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
... - 5. Lullaby
Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
... - 6. Lay Your Sleeping Head, My Love
Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
... - 7. Law Like Love
Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.
... - 8. In Memory Of W.b. Yeats
I
He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
... - 9. A Walk After Dark
A cloudless night like this
Can set the spirit soaring:
After a tiring day
The clockwork spectacle is
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