The following is the third portion of the narrator’s closing remarks in W.H. Auden’s long poem, “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.” The final choral hymn is coming on Monday. If you prefer, you can read the entire poem by clicking the link below.
In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practise his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God’s Will be done, that, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.
— the Narrator in W.H. Auden’s “For the Time Being“ (pdf)
