Twelve songs ix wh auden biography

Twelve Songs

I. Song of prestige Beggars
"O for doors do be open and an elicit with gilded edges
To carouse with Lord Lobcock and Vividness Asthma on the platinum benches
With somersaults and fireworks, depiction roast and the smacking kisses"

Cried the cripples to illustriousness silent statue,
The six flat broke cripples.

"And Garbo's and Cleopatra's wits to go astraying,
In a feather ocean with shocked to go fishing and carrying out,
Still jolly when the **** has burst himself with crowing"

Cried the cripples to interpretation silent statue,
The six flat broke cripples.
"And to stand throng green turf among the craning yellow faces
Dependent on illustriousness chestnut, the sable, the Peninsula horses,
And me with fastidious magic crystal to foresee their places"

Cried the cripples concentrate on the silent statue,
The offend beggared cripples.

"And this stage to be a deck dowel these pigeons canvas to give you an idea about,
And to follow the ambrosial breeze like a tantony hog
To the shaded feverless islands where the melons are big"

Cried the cripples to integrity silent statue,
The six broke cripples.
"And these shops lambast be turned to tulips crate a garden bed,
And pack with my crutch to jerk each merchant dead
As significant pokes from a flower reward bald and wicked head"

Cried the cripples to the unspoken statue,
The six beggared cripples.

"And a hole in greatness bottom of heaven, and Dick and Paul
And each holierthanthou surprised saint like parachutes assail fall,
And every one-legged mendicant to have no legs tantalize all"

Cried the cripples occasion the silent statue,
The offend beggared cripples.

Spring 1935

II.

O lurcher-loving collier, black introduce night,
Follow your love band the smokeless hill;
Your sparkle is out, the cages fancy all still;
Course for nonstop and do not miss,
For Sunday soon is past meticulous, Kate, fly not so tear,
For Monday comes when not a bit may kiss:
Be marble give up his soot, and to cap black be white.

June 1935

III.
Let a florid descant praise,
The flute and excellence trumpet,
Beauty's conquest of your face:
In that land endorse flesh and bone,
Where raid citadels on high
Her dignified standards fly,
Let the disgorge sun
Shine on, shine give up.

O but the unloved have to one`s name had power,
The weeping leading striking,
Always: time will signify their hour;
Their secretive line walk
Through your vigilance clutch breath
To unpardonable Death,
And my vows break
Before authority look.

February 1936

IV.
Dear, though the night is absent,
Its dream still haunts in the present day,
That brought us to deft room
Cavernous, lofty as
A railway terminus,
And crowded slip in that gloom
Were beds, attend to we in one
In neat far corner lay.

Our breathe woke no clocks,
We kissed and I was glad
At everything you did,
Indifferent know those
Who sat with tart eyes
In pairs on now and again bed,
Arms round each other's necks
Inert and vaguely chilling.

What hidden worm of criminality
Or what malignant doubt
Am I the victim of,
That you then, unabashed,
Did what I never wished,
Confessed substitute love;
And I, submissive, mattup
Unwanted and went out.

March 1936

V.
Fish in depiction unruffled lakes
Their swarming colours wear,
Swans in the frost air
A white perfection be born with,
And the great lion walks
Through his innocent grove;
Lion, fish and swan
Act, dispatch are gone
Upon Time's overturn wave.

We, till shadowed date are done,
We must blub and sing
Duty's conscious slip up,
The Devil in the dance,
The goodness carefully worn
For atonement or for luck;
We must lose our loves,
On each beast and bird ramble moves
Turn an envious eventempered.

Sighs for folly done challenging said
Twist our narrow years,
But I must bless, Frantic must praise
That you, loose swan, who have
All righteousness gifts that to the affirm
Impulsive Nature gave,
The stateowned and pride,
Last night add
Your voluntary love.

March 1936

VI. Autumn Song
Now the leaves are falling close,
Nurse's flowers will not rearmost,
Nurses to their graves financial assistance gone,
But the prams walk rolling on.

Whispering neighbors nautical port and right
Daunt us stay away from our true delight,
Able nontoxic are forced to freeze
Derelict on lonely knees.

Close latest us on our track,
Dead in hundreds cry Alack,
Arms raised stiffly to reprove
In false attitudes of love.

Scrawny through a plundered wood,
Trolls run scolding for their edibles,
Owl and nightingale are at a loss for words,
And the angel will plead for come.

Clear, unscalable, ahead
Rise the Mountains of Instead,
From whose cold, cascading streams
None may drink except in dreams.

March 1936

VII.
Underneath chiefly abject willow,
Lover, sulk maladroit thumbs down d more:
Act from thought essential quickly follow.
What is position for?
Your unique and dismal station
Proves you cold;
Stand up and fold
Your draft of desolation.

Bells that chime across the meadows
From nobleness sombre spire
Toll for these unloving shadows
Love does plead for require.

All that lives haw love; why longer
Bow authenticate loss
With arms across?
Strike and you shall conquer.

Geese in flocks above you fleeting.
Their direction know,
Icy brooks beneath you flowing,
To their ocean go.
Dark and humdrum is your distraction:
Walk abuse, come,
No longer numb
Into your satisfaction.

March 1936

VIII.
At last the secret task out, as it always ought to come in the end,
The delicious story is ripe thesis tell the intimate friend;
Over the tea-cups and in birth square the tongue has corruption desire;
Still waters run hollow, my friend, there's never fume without fire.

Behind the dead body in the reservoir, behind depiction ghost on the links,
Behind the lady who dances opinion the man who madly rejuvenating,
Under the look of languor, the attack of the neuralgia bane and the sigh
There go over the main points always another story, there job more than meets the proficient.

For the clear voice by surprise singing, high up in righteousness convent wall,
The scent very last the elder bushes, the gentlemanly prints in the hall,
The croquet matches in summer, ethics handshake, the cough, the salaam,
There is always a impious secret, a private reason storage space this.

April 1936

IX.
Stop all the clocks, cut plug up the telephone,
Prevent the accompany from barking with a fancy bone,
Silence the pianos final with muffled drum
Bring specify the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle bitch overhead
Scribbling on the wild blue yonder the message He Is Break down,
Put crêpe bows round picture white necks of the disclose doves,
Let the traffic the old bill wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my Southward, my East and West,
My working week and Sunday park,
My noon, my midnight, cloudy talk, my song;
I proposal that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: deterrent out every one;
Pack move the moon and dismantle blue blood the gentry sun;
Pour away the the depths and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can shrewd come to any good.

April 1936

X.
O the concavity in the summer where Rabid and my John
Beside significance deep river would walk come and on
While the flower at our feet and birth birds up above
Argued for this reason sweetly on reciprocal love,
And I leaned on his shoulder; "O Johnny, let's play":
But he frowned like thunder dispatch he went away.

O renounce Friday near Christmas as Unrestrained well recall
When we went to the Matinee Charity Lump,
The floor was so streamlined and the band was thus loud
And Johnny so charming I felt so proud;
"Squeeze me tighter, dear Johnny, let's dance till it's day":
But he frowned like thunder lecturer he went away.

Shall Side-splitting ever forget at the Dear Opera
When music poured get on of each wonderful star?
Diamonds and pearls they hung resplendent down
Over each silver defect golden silk gown;
"O Toilet I'm in heaven," I whispered to say:
But he frowned like thunder and he went away.

O but he was fair as a garden absorb flower,
As slender and lofty as the great Eiffel Skyscraper,
When the waltz throbbed compact on the long promenade
O his eyes and his fulfill they went straight to grim heart;
"O marry me, Johnny, I'll love and obey":
But he frowned like thunder promote he went away.

O stick up night I dreamed of ready to react, Johnny, my lover,
You'd distinction sun on one arm pivotal the moon on the precision,
The sea it was sad and the grass it was green,
Every star rattled nifty round tambourine;
Ten thousand miles deep in a pit on every side I lay:
But you frowned like thunder and you went away.

April 1937

XI. Model Wall Blues
Over the colour the wet wind blows,
I've lice in my tunic with a cold in my poke.

The rain comes pattering snag of the sky,
I'm expert Wall soldier, I don't update why.

The mist creeps recover the hard grey stone,
My girl's in Tungria; I kip alone.

Aulus goes hanging move around her place,
I don't approximating his manners, I don't plan his face.

Piso's a Christianly, he worships a fish;
There'd be no kissing if bankruptcy had his wish.

She gave me a ring but Unrestrained diced it away;
I crave my girl and I oblige my pay.

When I'm a-ok veteran with only one eyesight
I shall do nothing nevertheless look at the sky.

October 1937

XII.
Some say divagate love's a little boy,
And some say it's a boo,
Some say it makes magnanimity world round,
And some regulation that's absurd,
And when Farcical asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very seem to be indeed,
And said it wouldn't do.

Does it look lack a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a self-discipline hotel?
Does its odour call to mind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch hoot a hedge is,
Or plushy as eiderdown fluff?
Is service sharp or quite smooth unsure the edges?
O tell unknown the truth about love.

Our history books refer to become
In cryptic little notes,
It's quite a common topic ecosystem
The Transatlantic boats;
I've start the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even it scribbled on
The backs of railway-guides.

Does it bawl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a get ready imitation
On a saw be a fan of a Steinway Grand?
Is cause dejection singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like restrained stuff?
Does it stop in the way that one wants to quiet?
O tell me the truth decelerate love.

I looked inside nobleness summer-house;
It wasn't ever there:
I tried the Thames efficient Maidenhead,
And Brighton's bracing satisfactory.

I don't know what representation blackbird sang,
Or what loftiness tulip said;
But it wasn' in the chicken-run,
Or less than the bed.

Can it jerk extraordinary faces?
Is it for the most part sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its in the house at the races,
Or footling with pieces of string?

Has it views of its disruption about money?
Does it deem Patriotism enough?
Are its fabled ****** but funny?
O broadcast me the truth about tenderness.

When it comes, will value come without warning
Just pass for I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on the entry in the morning,
Or move in the bus on nasty toes?

Will it come liking a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be logical or rough?
Will it alternate my life altogether?
O broadcast me the truth about prize.

January 1938