Auden, W. H.: There Will Be No Peace

Though mild clear weather

Smile again on the shore of your esteem

And its colours come back, the storm has changed you:

You will not forget, ever,

The darkness blotting out hope, the gale

Prophesying your downfall.

You must live with your knowledge.

Way back, beyond, outside of you are others,

In moonless absences you never heard of,

Who have certainly heard of you,

Beings of unknown number and gender:

And they do not like you.

What have you done to them?

Nothing? Nothing is not an answer:

You will come to believe - how can you help it? -

That you did, you did do something;

You will find yourself wishing you could make them laugh,

You will long for their friendship.

There will be no peace.

Fight back, then, with such courage as you have

And every unchivalrous dodge you know of,

Clear on your conscience on this:

Their cause, if they had one, is nothing to them now;

They hate for hate's sake.