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Auden on Ash Wednesday

In a canonical alignment of great beauty, today, Ash Wednesday, is one hundred years since Wystan Hugh Auden (pictured) was born, in York, North Yorkshire, in 1907.

Some words of his below...


We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.



excerpt of "From The Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio", by W.H. Auden

Comments

Ms Baroque said…
I like that: "a canonical alignment." Wish I'd thought of it.
Fri Feb 23, 07:16:00 pm 2007
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