# W.H. Auden Poem Mentioned in 'The Tommyknockers'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 14, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614 "2014-11-14T12:41:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ZomZom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zomzom/32/5620_2.png) [@ZomZom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZomZom)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614/1 "2014-11-14T12:41:32Z")

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Stephen King mentions a W.H. Auden poem in ‘The Tommyknockers’ but I haven’t been able to identify the specific poem. Here is the reference:

> [@](#):
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> He found himself remembering W.H. Auden’s poem about running away: sooner or later you always ended up in one room, under a naked light bulb, playing solitaire at three in the morning.

Anyone know which poem this is?

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**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614/2 "2014-11-14T16:42:23Z")

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I wonder if it is a strange reference to the flight of Mary and Joseph into Egypt in Auden’s, _[For The Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Time_Being)_? The poem is complicated, and I don’t claim to understand it, but this passage [trimmed to accommodate the Dope’s fair use policy] seems to be what good old Gard was referring to:

> [@](#):
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> VOICES OF THE DESERT:  
> In a land of lilies I lost my wits,  
> Nude as a number all night I ran  
> With a ghost for a guest along green canals;  
> By the waters of waking I wept for the weeds.  
> Come to our jolly desert  
> Where even the dolls go whoring;  
> Where cigarette-ends  
> Become intimate friends.  
> And it’s always three in the morning.

In the context of the rest of the poem (It’s available for now at [archive.org](http://archive.org), if you squint.), the passage is kinda’ what he’s talking about.

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**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614/3 "2014-11-14T17:11:16Z")

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Oh, and not actually having a copy of the text, I don’t know if the following quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald is there, but this [blog post](http://www.polyarchive.com/three-oclock-in-the-morning-f-scott-fitzgerald-w-h-auden/) conjoins the Auden text and Fitzgerald quote for some reason. Fitzgerald quote, from an article in a 1936[issue of _Esquire_](http://www.esquire.com/features/the-crack-up-2), entitled The Crack-Up:

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> Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical suffering – this is an all-weather beatitude for gloom in general and fairly salutary daytime advice for everyone. But at three o’clock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesn’t work – and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

EDIT: Thanks for the question; I had forgotten how much fun it was to read Auden.

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**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614/4 "2014-11-14T18:25:31Z")

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I remember being in a high school academic competition where one question our team missed (and the other team got) was “According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a real dark night of the soul, what time is it?”

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**Author:** ![ZomZom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zomzom/32/5620_2.png) [@ZomZom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZomZom)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/w-h-auden-poem-mentioned-in-the-tommyknockers/704614/5 "2014-11-16T01:45:02Z")

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Thanks, Gray Ghost, nice sleuthing. I’m really surprised to find so little in my searches on the question. Much appreciated!