W. H. Auden

[from W. H. Auden's Dichtung and Wahrheit]

II

Of any poem written by someone else, my first demand is that it be good (who wrote it is of secondary importance); of any poem written by myself, my first demand is that it be genuine, recognizable, like my handwriting, as having been written, for better or worse, by me. (When it comes to his own poems, a poet’s preferences and those of his readers often overlap but seldom coincide.)

V

If I were a composer, I believe I could produce a piece of music which would express to a listener what I mean when I think the word love, but it would be impossible for me to compose it in such a way that he would know that this love was felt for You (not for God, or my mother, or the decimal system). The language of music is, as it were, intransitive, and it is just this intransivity which makes it meaningless for a listener to ask: — “Does the composer really mean what he says, or is he only pretending?”

VI

If I were a painter, I believe I could paint a portrait that would express to an onlooker what I mean when I think the word You (beautiful, loveable, etc.), but it would be impossible for me to paint it in such a way that he would know that I loved You. the language of painting lacks, as it were, the Active Voice, and it is just this objectivity which makes it meaningless for an onlooker to ask: — “Is this really a portrait of N (not of a young boy, a judge or a locomotive in disguise)?”