Leap Before You Look

By: admin | Date: September 7, 2015 | Categories: poetry

W. H. Auden described in his famous poem “Leap Before You Look”:

The sense of danger must not disappear: The way is certainly both short and steep, However gradual it looks from here; Look if you like, but you will have to leap. Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep And break the by-laws any fool can keep; It is not the convention but the fear That has a tendency to disappear…. The clothes that are considered right to wear Will not be either sensible or cheap, So long as we consent to live like sheep And never mention those who disappear…. A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear: Although I love you, you will have to leap; Our dream of safety has to disappear.

Brooks, David (2015-04-14). The Road to Character (Kindle Locations 3439-3448). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.