February 21, 2008

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  W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

   

  The awards and accolades poets win often attract much attention in the public sphere.  However, sometimes actions in their private lives are just as remarkable, if not as widely known.  Dorothy Day was the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in New York and did much to soldier against poverty with slim resources.  Unfortunately, her compassion for others didn’t win any sympathy from the government.  She was once fined $250 because one of her hostels was “not up to code.”  Leaving the courthouse disheartened – for she had no ready means to cover the fine – she passed a sorry group of men looking for handouts.  One man, as scruffy as the rest, emerged from amid the group and pressed a piece of paper into her hand.  Explaining tha he heard what had happened, he said, “I want to help out a little.  Here’s two-fifty.”  Day beamed as she thanked him, much cheered by this small act of selflessness.  It wasn’t until she was on the subway home that she looked at the check.  It was a check for two hundred and fifty dollars, not a two dollars and fifty cents – and it was signed by W.H. Auden.  The poet once quipped, “We are here on earth to do good for others.  What the others are here for, I don’t know.”  A flip comment belying truly noble sentiments.

   

  Copied from my desk calendar.

  • 6:27 pm
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