I sit in one of the dives ....

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Stanza V, from "September 1, 1939,"

by W. H. Auden

 

Faces along the bar

Cling to their average day:

The lights must never go out,

The music must always play,

All the conventions conspire

To make this fort assume

The furniture of home;

Lest we should see where we are,

Lost in a haunted wood,

Children afraid of the night

who have never been happy or good.

 

Here is the full text of the poem:

 

www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15545

 

IMPORTANTLY, Auden came rightly to view several parts of this famous poem as dishonest, & asked that it be removed from his body of work. Here is a video in which Columbia University Professor Edward Mendelson provides a precise, moving & sometimes chilling explanation:

 

QuickTime video: www.columbia.edu/cu/news/media/02/edwardMendelson/edwardM...

 

Real video: www.columbia.edu/cu/news/media/02/edwardMendelson/

 

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