Here it is again: September 1, 1939, seventy-eight years later. Can you picture Auden at that “dive” on Fifty-Second Street, (aka Swing Street) on that terrible day when the Germans invaded Poland and quaked the earth? One of the best stanzas is a metaphorical description of that bar and others like it.
Quiz of the day:
WHA disliked the last line of the penultimate stanza because he felt it was “dishonest,” by which I think he meant “untrue.”
He changed it to
(1) We must love one another and die
(2) We must love one another or die
(3) We must love one another or diet
(4) One must love mother nature or die
(5) If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Light up a Winston and think of dear Wystan. Bragging rights go to the winner!
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Author: The Best American Poetry
