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 darkness sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
- W H Auden (1957)
Thanks M for posting this. I immediately fell in love with this poem which describes the emotional life of Auden when he wrote it - i.e. even if our emotional relationships are unequal and unreciprocal, let the more loving one be me.
My own interpretation of the third stanza is that it talks about the line between admiration and love and the fourth stanza talks about a calm and quiet acceptance at the absence of both.
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 darkness sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
- W H Auden (1957)
Thanks M for posting this. I immediately fell in love with this poem which describes the emotional life of Auden when he wrote it - i.e. even if our emotional relationships are unequal and unreciprocal, let the more loving one be me.
My own interpretation of the third stanza is that it talks about the line between admiration and love and the fourth stanza talks about a calm and quiet acceptance at the absence of both.