The More Loving One Looking up at the stars, I know quite … - W. H. Auden

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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.

W. H. Auden

stars unrequited-love

English

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About W. H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was an Anglo-American poet known for his vast poetic work in many forms on many themes.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Native Name: Wystan Hugh Auden

Alternative Names: Wystan Auden • Wystan H Auden • W. H. Wystan Hugh Auden

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Shorter versions of this quote

If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

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.

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.

Originators like W. H. Auden:

T. S. Eliot Czesław Miłosz E. M. Forster William Carlos Williams Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Additional quotes by W. H. Auden

All the rest is silence
On the other side of the wall;
And the silence ripeness,
And the ripeness all.

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

To ask the hard question is simple, The simple act of the confused will.

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 … - W. H. Auden

About W. H. Auden

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