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Poem by Wystan Hugh Auden


Epitaph on a Tyrant


Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

January 1939

Wystan Hugh Auden


Wystan Hugh Auden's other poems:
  1. The Common Life
  2. Moon Landing
  3. Grub First, Then Ethics
  4. Horae Canonicae: Compline
  5. A New Year Greeting


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