"As I Walked Out One Evening" by W. H. Auden

As I Walked Out One Evening
by W. H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river	5
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
‘Love has no ending.

‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,	10
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

‘I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking	15
Like geese about the sky.

‘The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'	20

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
‘O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

‘In the burrows of the Nightmare	25
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

‘In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,	30
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

‘Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances	35
And the diver’s brilliant bow.

‘O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you’ve missed.	40

‘The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

‘Where the beggars raffle the banknotes	45
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

‘O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:	50
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

‘O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour	55
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.	60



As I Walked Out One Evening — Auden wrote this poem in 1940, after moving to the United States.

seven stars — A name for the Pleiades, a constellation (or more accurately a star cluster, as astronomers know that the stars do not just look as if they are together, which is the case with most constellations, but actually are a single formation). In mythology, the Pleiades were daughters of the Titan Atlas, who is forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders. In some myths, the Pleiades commit suicide and Zeus then transforms them into stars. In others, they are pursued by Orion the Hunter and then transformed into doves and finally into stars so they can escape him. The constellation Orion appears to follow the Pleaides across the sky. Both constellations are among the brightest in the sky and easiest to recognize. The term seven sisters can also refer to a passage in Revelations (1:16) that refers to seven stars held in Christ’s right hand. See note below about the Lily-white Boy.

appalling — literally, this word means to make white. It has the same etymological root as pallor and pale.

banknotes — paper money

Lily-white boy — a reference to the religious folksong “O Green Grow the Rushes,” which dates back at least to the 12th century. The song is someties sung as a Christmas carol and uses the same kind of structure as “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which each new verse is sung after the repetition of all the prior verses: I’ll sing you twelve, Ho Green grow the rushes, Ho What are your twelve, Ho? Twelve for the twelve Apostles Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven, Ten for the ten commandments, Nine for the nine bright shiners, Eight for the April Rainers, Seven for the seven stars in the sky, Six for the six proud walkers, Five for the symbols at your door, Four for the Gospel makers, Three, three, the rivals, Two, two, the lily-white boys, Clothèd all in green, Ho Ho One is one and all alone And evermore shall be so. The lily-white boys (two of them) are symbols of purity or innocence, and have been associated with various mythological references.

Roarer — someone who gets drunk and parties too hard