“Lay your sleeping head, my love
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral;
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie:
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.”

— W. H. Auden

Lay your sleeping head, my love (1937), lines 1–2, written January 1937; also known as Lullaby.

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W. H. Auden 122

Anglo-American poet 1907–1973

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