In its opening lines, "the clever hopes expire of a low and dishonest decade" as the speaker sits "in one of the dives on Fifty-second Street."
The speaker of this poem warns that "The lights must never go out, the music must always play," else we risk revealing that we are "Children afraid of the night." In its second stanza, the speaker claims that like the schoolchildren, he knows the source of the "psychopathic god," because "those to whom evil is done do evil in return." This poem's eighth stanza, which was restored posthumously after being removed by its author, states "All I have is a voice" and concludes "We must love one another or die." In its opening lines, "the clever hopes expire of a low and dishonest decade" as the speaker sits "in one of the dives on Fifty-second Street." For 10 points, name this W. H. Auden poem named for the date of the German invasion of Poland.
The speaker of this poem warns that "The lights must never go out, the music must always play," else we risk revealing that we are "Children afraid of the night.
“{September 1, 1939”}