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 sensual ecstasy.
Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell,
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreadful 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 sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless.
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
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Comments
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How it seems to me...
From guest Joanne (contact)
This doesn't seem like a very popular theory, but it was the idea that was immediately apparent to me the very first time I read this - I think that this is a poem about the trials of the world, and how the writer finds respite from them through their lover - the subject of the poem. I think this could perhaps be because they are a gay couple, and would probably have faced persecution and prejudice. I think that the writer emphasizes the difficulty of the world a lot, e.g. talking about the effects of "time and fevers... and the grave". I think that especially the "pedantic boring cry" of the "fashionable madmen" shows that the problem stems from the aggression of other people towards the writer and his lover. But I love that every time, it comes back to the lover - as if all the troubles they face are just inconsequential compared to their moment, together, alone. My favourite stanza for this is the first. I especially love: "But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie, Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful." I've seen lots of people saying that this is about a prostitute, or some other unfaithful lover, which I don't know what to think about. I think it's mostly because of these lines: "Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love." Implying that his lover was sleeping with lots of other people. It's my understanding that this was published in 1937. At that time, he was in a sort of erotic friendship with Chester Kallman, another poet. It's been postulated that Auden was in love with him, and though they were irregularly involved with each other over the 30s, they were never in a dedicated relationship, so I can see how all this would have been a theme that made sense in the context of Auden's life at the time. But yeah, I love this poem, it's one of my favourites
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Please excuse my stupidity, but...
From guest Colleen B. (contact)
I think it would make sence even if one was not aware that Auden was homosexual. Then again, I'm only in 10th grade. Please explain. -
Auden's Lullaby
From guest Daniel Goldberg (contact)
The precise choosing and placement of English words create, in total, a gret and beautiful testatment to what can be done with the English language. The poem reminds me of an extended "Cellar door," i.e., the phrase J.R.R. Tolkein said were the most beautfiul in the English langauge. It's the sounds, then, that makes this poem; the sing-song gorgeous juxtapositions of pure sound. The meaning is obscure unless you know of his life (homosexual) which isn't fair to the reader--not how a universally beautiful poem should be rendered, i.e., with individual's meaning rather than a more universal theme. Emily Dickenson on steroids crossed with T.S. Eliot. -
Auden's 'Lullaby'
From guest Bertram Workum (contact)
Auden's (Wystan Hugh Auden, b. 1907, d. 1973) own title for this poem is 'Lullaby,' and so it appears in "Collected Poems." In the poem, Auden apparently is writing to a homosexual lover -- perhaps a lover of one night (hence, "lay your sleeping head...on my faithless arm...."), as his long-term relationships were few until he met Chester Kallman in the United States during or just after World War II -- some years after 'Lullaby' was written (January 1937: "Collected Poems", but many critics believe it reflects his time in Berlin in the late 1920s, and later travels in Spain -- often in the company of one or another of the young men he had met in Berlin. Before Auden and his close friend from Oxford, the prosadist Christopher Isherwood ["Berlin Stories," "A Single Man," etc.] left Europe for the United States in 1939, Auden worked hard but in vain to keep one of those young men from being forced into the German Army) Kallman became his life companion, as well as collaborator on opera libretti, notaby "The Rake's Progress" for Stravinsky. When Auden died in 1973, TIME magazine called 'Lullaby' perhaps the greatest English language lyric poem of the 20th century. -
transfer of comments:
from a duplicated post:
sEXySnaiL on July 22, 2005
Wow, I love this. It is so beautifully written, and just wow. I'm so amazed. I don't think that I have read anything with such beautiful words all placed together before in my whole 18 years of living. There just isn't quite any words to explain the meaning that this poem has. Great write.
~Aubrey~
PoeticFlame on July 21, 2005
I love this love poem! It is so beautiful. I shall bookmark this poem as one of my favorites, and print a copy of it out for me to always read and enjoy. -
This has always been one of my most favorite classic poems. Auden is amazing.
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He sometimes sounds so stiff .. but the words are beautiful ..and I still can't help but be intrigued by his writing style.
Lisa
Thanks for having him this week.
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