September 1, 1939 by WH Auden (on hearing war had broken out)

Funny thing about poetry, as an artform, it's defined by the necssary condition that by the time we are able to fully appreciate it, it's already too late. It's like a form of comedy, but instead of punchlines you get these wryly buried landmines that you only appreciate in a future where you've stepped on one, and it's a very different kind of laughter. Sometimes when I read Auden, I wonder if he was really writing a kind of curse for us to discover just in the moment where it clicks that we are here because we have failed to take heed.

Poignant, anyway.

"America has many faults, one of the worst being that Americans always want answers to everything, and when you tell them there aren’t any, are very upset. But when they are in a tough spot they do look forward, unlike the English who the worse things get, the more passionately do they cling to the past. I have almost definitely decided now to become an American citizen."

One of the most amazing poems ever written. Auden rules.