Disciplining Passion: A Day in the Life of Poet W.H. Auden
“The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.”
― W. H. Auden
Note: This piece originally appeared on Tess! In the City blog in September of 2019.
As I am currently embarking on a series of days called “A Day in the Life of…” [fill in writers/artists], I chose Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: How Artists Work and his corrective sequel Daily Rituals: Women at Work to guide me when following the schedules of artists and writers. Mason Currey opens in his first Daily Rituals with W.H. Auden, and I’ve decided to begin this with him too.
The Day in the Life of series is basically me taking a day to follow the daily routines of artists/writers before me. I’m fascinated by schedules and how we get to the desk as creators. I hope you’ll join me for the road/ride and that you’ll learn about the artist/writer and that maybe it will inspire you to a new routine.
If you’d like to know a little more about Auden: W.H. Auden was an English-American poet, playwright, and essayist who began writing at the age of fifteen. With T.S. Eliot, he reprinted his second edition of his first book Poems in 1930 when he was twenty-three. In 1947, his poem “The Age of…
