Auden's famous lines...

[sdness]

"Love each other or perish."

"Fate succumbs
many a species: one alone
jeopardises itself."

I read these two lines in a book (Tuesdays with Morrie) over the summer. However, I cannot find which poems they are from. Anyone know?

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

The first appears to be misquoted. or Auden may have made a similar quote more than once.

A similar line is found in September 1, 1939 (http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1391)

The line there is:

We must love one another or die.


There are numerous references to the alternate formulation on Google, but no poem comes up on any search, so I wonder if this is just a common misquotation. It is also possible that the line changed over time, as I have read that Auden revised the poem over time.

Google tells me the second is from "In Death", but I am not familiar with it and could not find it on-line. I found lots of references to the "Tuesdays with Morrie" connection, however.

BrianIs:)AtYou

[Jee Leong]

We must love one another or die.

Auden 'disowned' the line, and much of the poem, later in his life. He thought it was dishonest since we will die whether we love one another or not. (my paraphrase from memory which is highly unreliable.) This is extreme literal-mindedness or high moral rectitude or something else. His late distaste for ruining 'a fine tenor voice/For effects that bring down a house'?