by W. H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907 - 1973)

Language: English 
Clocks cannot tell our time of day
For what event to pray
Because we have no time, because
We have no time until
We know what time we fill,
Why time is other than time was.
Nor can our question satisfy
The answer in the statue's eye:
Only the living ask whose brow
May wear the Roman laurel now;
The dead say only how.
What happens to the living when we die?
Death is not understood by death; nor you, nor I.

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Composition:

    Set to music by Lukas Foss (b. 1922), "We're late", 1959-60, published 1961, copyright © 1964 [ soprano and orchestra ], from Time Cycle, no. 1, New York, Carl Fischer

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 82