'In love with language'

 

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

 

Born in England in February of 1907, Auden was a prolific writer, penning some 400 poems, including seven long poems (two of them book-length), 400-plus essays and reviews, and a number of plays and screenplays, several in partnership with other leading writers of the time.  He also wrote many opera libretti and musical collaborations.    For Saturday’s Poem, here is Auden’s,

 

                                             The More Loving One

                                 Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
                                 That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
                                 But on earth indifference is the least
                                 We have to dread from man or beast.

                                 How should we like it were stars to burn
                                 With a passion for us we could not return?
                                 If equal affection cannot be,
                                 Let the more loving one be me.

                                 Admirer as I think I am
                                 Of stars that do not give a damn,
                                 I cannot, now I see them, say
                                 I missed one terribly all day.

                                 Were all stars to disappear or die,
                                 I should learn to look at an empty sky
                                And feel its total dark sublime,
                                Though this might take me a little time.