employers, Fudge Motors Inc. Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
10 For his Union reports that he paid his dues, (Our report on his Union shows it was sound) An d our Social Psychology workers found That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink. Th e Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
15 An d that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way. Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured, An d his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured. Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
20 And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, A gramophone, a radio, a car and a frigidaire. Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; Whe n there was peace, he was for peace; whe n there was war, he
went. 25 He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist1 says was the right number for a parent of his
generation, An d our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Wa s he free? Wa s he happy? Th e question is absurd: Ha d anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
Mar. 1939 1939, 1940
September 1, 1939
I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-Second Street2 Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire
5 Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright An d darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives;
10 Th e unmentionable odour of death Offends the September night.
Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther3 until now
15 That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz,4
1. An expert in eugenics, a pseudoscience for the 2. In New York City, where Auden was living. genetic 'improvement' of humans. 3. Martin Luther (1483-1546), founder of the 1. The date of Germany's invasion of Poland and Protestant Reformation. the outbreak of World War II. 4. Austrian city where Hitler spent his childhood.
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SEPTEMBER 1,1939 / 2433
What huge imago5 made A psychopathic god: I and the public know
20 Wha t all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.
Exiled Thucydides6 knew All that a speech can say
25 About Democracy, An d what dictators do, Th e elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book,
30 Th e enlightenment driven away, Th e habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again.
Into this neutral air
35 Wher e blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Eac h language pours its vain Competitive excuse:
40 But who can live for long In an euphoric dream; Ou t of the mirror they stare, Imperialism's face An d the international wrong.
45 Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, Th e music must always play, All the conventions conspire
50 To make this fort assume Th e furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night
55 Wh o have never been happy or good.
Th e windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote
60 About Diaghilev7 Is true of the normal heart;
5. Psychoanalytic term for the unconscious rep-because he failed to prevent the Spartans from resentation of a parental figure. seizing a colony. 6. Greek general (d. ca. 401 B.C.E.) and historian 7. The Russian dancer and choreographer Vaslav of the Peloponnesian War, exiled from Athens Nijinsky (1890-1950) wrote that his former lover
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243 4 / W . H . AUDE N For the error bred in the bone Of each woma n and each ma n Craves what it cannot have, 6 5 Not universal love But to be loved alone. Fro m the conservative dark Into the ethical life Th e dense commuters come, 7 0 Repeating their morning vow, 'I will be true to the wife, I'll concentrate more on my work,' An d helpless governors wake To resume their compulsory game: 7 5 Wh o can release them now, Wh o can reach the deaf, Wh o can speak for the dumb?8 All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, so Th e romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street An d the lie of Authority Whos e buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State 85 An d no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.9 Defenceless under the night 9 0 Ou r world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: 9 5 Ma y I, composed like them Of ErOS? and of dust, Greek god o f desire Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. Sept. 193 9 1939, 1940
the ballet impresario Sergey Diaghilev (1872? 9. Auden later revised this line, which struck him 1929) 'does not want universal love, but to be as 'dishonest.' In one version of the poem the line loved alone.' reads 'We must love one another and die.' Another 8. Proverbs 31.8. version leaves out the entire stanza.
