“Minus times minus equals plus,
The reason for this we need not discuss.”

— W. H. Auden

As stated in "The Poet Himself" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E6D81539F937A35753C1A967948260 by Paul Fussell, in The New York Times (4 October 1981), these lines were a "math mnemonic" which Auden "had to memorize as a child." <br class="br">Misattributed

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W. H. Auden122

Anglo-American poet 1907–1973

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