“Defenceless 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.”

—  W. H. Auden, September 1, 1939

Source: September 1, 1939 (1939), Lines 89–99

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wher…" by W. H. Auden?
W. H. Auden photo
W. H. Auden122
Anglo-American poet 1907–1973

Related quotes

Derek Landy photo

“Doesn't sunlight kill them? Doesn't it turn them to dust, or make them burst into flames or something?"
"Nope. Vampires tan, just like you and me. Well, just like you. I tend to bleach.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

George MacDonald photo

“So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever have an end. So, then, is it eternal. The negation of aught else, is its affirmation. Where the light cannot come, there abideth the darkness. The light doth but hollow a mine out of the infinite extension of the darkness. And ever upon the steps of the light treadeth the darkness; yea, springeth in fountains and wells amidst it, from the secret channels of its mighty sea. Truly, man is but a passing flame, moving unquietly amid the surrounding rest of night; without which he yet could not be, and whereof he is in part compounded.”

George MacDonald book Phantastes

Phantastes (1858)

Eminem photo

“Like a flame in the night
Like a ghost in the dark
There's a ray, there's a light
There's a hope, there's a spark”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Stimulate" (from 8 Mile, 2002)
2000s

“How we treat our fellow creatures is only one more way in which each one of us, every day, writes our own epitaph—bearing into the world a message of light and life or just more darkness and death, adding to the world's joy or to its despair.”

Matthew Scully (1959) American political writer and speechwriter

Dominion (2002)

Joan Miró photo

“I begin my work under the effect of shock, which I can sense and which gets me on the run from reality... In any case, I need a starting point, even if it’s just a speck of dust or a gleam of light.”

Joan Miró (1893–1983) Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist

1940 - 1960
Source: On the Readability of Signs; Miro's path from Mysterious to Comic Pictorial signs, Sylvia Martin; Düsseldorf 2002, p. 67

Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“I am not the light, I am the night; but a flame stabs through my entrails and consumes me. I am the night devoured by light.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)

“…if my fire is not large, it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.”

Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963) American missionary

forward
The Pursuit of God (1957)

Mike Scott photo

“This light is for the world.
Send out from this wooden frame
a beacon made of holy flame
like a bridge across the morning sky
from candle to the hills of high
this light is for the world.”

Mike Scott (1958) songwriter, musician

"This Light Is for the World"
Universal Hall (2003)

Fali Sam Nariman photo

“Don't despair. Governments are the same everywhere - in every country.”

Fali Sam Nariman (1929) Indian politician

Affirmative action, not quotas for education': Nariman

Omar Khayyám photo

“Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and — sans End!”

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer

The Rubaiyat (1120)

Related topics