To Love or Die

  • All I have is a voice

  • To undo the folded lie,

  • The romantic lie in the brain

  • Of the sensual man-in-the-street

  • And the lie of Authority

  • Whose buildings grope the sky:

  • There is no such thing as the State

  • And no one exists alone;

  • Hunger allows no choice

  • To the citizen or the police;

  • We must love one another or die. {:.poetry}

  • Defenseless under the night

  • Our world in stupor lies;

  • Yet, dotted everywhere,

  • Ironic points of light

  • Flash out wherever the Just

  • Exchange their messages:

  • May I, composed like them

  • Of Eros and of dust,

  • Beleaguered by the same

  • Negation and despair,

  • Show an affirming flame. {:.poetry}

From “September 1, 1939” by W.H. Auden