As I Walked Out One Evening

[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    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, 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    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.'  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    Where Justice naked is, Time watches from the shadow    And coughs when you would kiss.  'In headaches and in worry    Vaguely life leaks away, 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    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.  '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    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: 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    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.