Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1856 |
| AUTHOR: | W. H. Auden (1907–73) |
| QUOTATION: | Eagerly, musician, Sweep your string, So we may sing, Elated, optative, Our several voices Interblending, Playfully contending, Not interfering But co-inhering, For all within The cincture of the sound Is holy ground, Where all are Brothers, None faceless Others. Let mortals beware Of words, for With words we lie, Can say peace When we mean war, Foul thought speak fair And promise falsely, But song is true: Let music for peace Be the paradigm, For peace means to change At the right time, As the World-Clock, Goes Tick and Tock. So may the story Of our human city Presently move Like music, when Begotten notes New notes beget, Making the flowing Of time a growing, Till what it could be, At last it is, Where even sadness Is a form of gladness, Where Fate is Freedom, Grace and Surprise. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | |
| SUBJECTS: | United Nations |