Auden arrives in New York26 January 1939, Australia Day
When he sailed into Liberty's armsHe entered a new harbour.When he sailed into my dream,He began to talk of eros agape lustand longing, of love and self-acceptanceof how words can be flowersor dead leaves, can be bed-matesor jailers in the night.
The face that was etched, finely grained,was still wide and open, corruscated and corrugatedwould come in time with whiskey and smokes.The habits of living are oftenThe habits of dying — dulce et decorum est.We do remember him more than others.
Devices for comfort
It is perfectly consistent with Wystan's habits day by day,That under the dining table there should be a chamber potAntique and ceramic in a Victorian way.Valerie came to dinner and the Stravinskys too,In the small Greenwich Village garret occupied by two.Drinks flowed like the unchecked cistern,And Wystan and Chester meddled about in the kitchen.Valerie stretched her legs, as good secretaries do,And, suddenly, she felt something hard against her shoe,Peering beneath the doily she saw the pot,Brimful and briny with the outpourings of the lot.Manners maketh the woman, and she lifted the potPost-haste to its bathroom spot.Dinner resumed. Chester was called to account,Looking under the table he was denied his fount.'Wystan, darling,' he cried, holding his pants, 'where's theZabaglione we prepared for dessert.'
W.H. Auden and B. Humphries dine together
'Every man carries with him through life a mirror,as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow.'
'Did I ever tell you of the Summer Fair?Cherry Grove was the place and we all were there.Fancy dress was the order of the dayso I, armed in Anglicanism, dressed with cope and mitreand all that a Bishop can wear,gaiters gartered and tight with emolumentsI journeyed into the park where all were gayand each of us frolicked in our own special way.'
I have this photograph of a wartime nurse,a lady tall in stature guards the two of usa tower of rectitude, battalion bosoms,and mother sends this to the battlefront —'This is a picture of a frustrated henwho is suffering from ingrowing virginity.'
That's Auden I later learn.Mother knew a thing or two, butdidn't give much away.No wonder expulsion was a habitlike the Craven 'A' cigarettes she ate.
No wonder B. Humphries esquirelate of Camberwell__________________potted plants__________________potted wives and lives__________________picket fenceswanted to meet Wystan.
And so to an Oxford high tablewhere the manners were known to be stablewhere corpulence was respectable,and flatulence venerable,and dons at dining are