Reason why I love the poetry classes I've taken so far, and why I keep on signing up for more poetry classes: the awesome poets I get exposed to. I've latched onto H.D. (and will eventually acquire a book of her stuff), and now I'm really liking some of W.H. Auden's stuff. This post is inspired by rereading "Lullaby" while getting stuff pulled together for my final paper.

"Lullaby"

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.


Seriously, I am in awe of the language he uses. It's just so well crafted and amazing. I don't know how to describe the feeling I get when I read this or other fantastic poetry. There's emotion, but also a sort of deeper inner calm. I had a similar feeling at the used book store in London, when I was going through the comics and graphic novels. It's somewhere between an obvious, bright neon light (because the message is clear) and a subtle nudge (because it's understated and not ugly like neon)... But the message is something like "This is what makes you happy. Remember this." And then I'm fully content and removed from the world and at peace. It's lovely.