Wystan Hugh Auden

The More Loving One

The More Loving One - meaning Summary

Affection Without Reciprocity

The speaker contemplates the indifferent cosmos and accepts that stars, like people, do not care about him. Rather than demand reciprocal affection, he resolves to "be the more loving one," valuing the stance of loving even when love is unreturned. He imagines coping if the stars vanished, learning to face an empty sky and finding a delayed, solemn consolation in his own capacity to love despite cosmic or human indifference.

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Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast. How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me. Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day. Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time.

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