Three Short Poems

W. H. Auden
“The underground roads
Are, as the dead prefer them,
Always tortuous.”


“When he looked the cave in the eye,
Hercules
Had a moment of doubt.”


"Leaning out over
The dreadful precipice,
One contemptuous tree.”

a quote by W.H. Auden
"My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain." I think Auden has a great face!

I think Auden is trying to say in the short poem about Hercules that even the strongest and bravest have moments of doubt, moments when the cold,dark,and unknown leave us unsettled, our reserve undermined.
And in the poem about the tree, Auden writes about living life to the fullest, living life on the edge so to speak so that the utmost can be derived--a tempting of fate,even death just to be able to say I gave it all I had. Perhaps Auden is also writing about those who stick their necks out and risk it all to write a wrong or expose an injustice--like one contemptuous tree on a lonely precipice.
In the first short poem, well I cannot even get close on this one--perhaps Auden is writing about hell....hmmm. thanks, s hamilton