In the deserts of the heart

"In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start."

— Auden, W. H. (1907-1973)

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Author

Auden, W. H. (1907-1973)

Work Title

In Memory of W. B. Yeats [from Another Time]

Place of Publication

New York

Publisher

Random House

Date

1940

Metaphor

"In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start."

Metaphor in Context

Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;

With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
(ll. 54-65)

Categories

Geography::Desert Liquid::Fountain

Provenance

Reading

Citation

W. H. Auden, Another Time (New York: Random House, 1940). <Link to Poets.org>

Date of Entry

05/19/2011

copied from this site: http://metaphors.iath.virginia.edu/metaphors/18429

The World Is Too Much With Us

The World Is Too Much With Us
by William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God!  I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

I like this poem because I OFTEN feel this way.

Take My Life And Let It Be Consecrated, Lord, To Thee

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing,
Always, only, for my King.
Take my life, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee,
Filled with messages from Three.

Take my silver and and my gold;
Not a mite would I with-hold,
Take my intellect and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose,
Every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne,
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee,
Ever, only, all for Thee.

Amen.

HENDON 7.7.7.7.
Frances Ridley Havergal, 1874
Henri Alexander Cesar Malan, 1827
Arr. by Lowell Mason, c. 1827
#358, The Mennonite Hymnal, Herald Press, 1969