Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.
W. H. AudenRead
I used to try and concentrate the poem so much that there wasn't a word that wasn't essential. This leads to becoming boring and constipated.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of balance in poetry, warning against over-editing and losing vitality.
W. H. Auden suggests that in the pursuit of perfection in poetry, one may become overly rigid and eliminate all but the most essential words. This leads to a loss of spontaneity and creativity, making the poem dull rather than vibrant. The quote serves as a reminder that art should retain a sense of life and fluidity rather than succumbing to an obsession with paring down to the essentials.
Themes
PoetryCreativityBalanceExpressionArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about creative writing, one might reference this quote to encourage writers to embrace their instincts.
More from W. H. Auden
All quotes βThat the speech of self-disclosure should be translatable seems to me very odd, but I am convinced that it is. The conclusion that I draw is that the only quality which all human being without exception possess is uniqueness: any characteristic, on the other hand, which one individual can be recognized as having in common with another, like red hair or the English language, implies the existence of other individual qualities which this classification excludes.
W. H. AudenRead
Nobody knows what the cause is, though some pretend they do; it like some hidden assassin waiting to strike at you. Childless women get it, and men when they retire; it as if there had to be some outlet for their foiled creative fire.
W. H. AudenRead
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.
W. H. AudenRead
Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
W. H. AudenRead
'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'
W. H. AudenRead
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