“A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”

— W. H. Auden, "Squares and Oblongs," in Poets at Work (1948)

About W. H. Auden

1907 – 1973

Anglo-American poet, author of "September 1, 1939".

“We must love one another or die.”

“O let not Time deceive you, you cannot conquer Time.”

“The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident.”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have an audience.”

“For his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every Art.”

“The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art, reigns more or less, and glows in every heart.”

“A poet without love were a physical and metaphysical impossibility.”

“In art as in love, instinct is enough.”