'We must love one another or die' he can command me to follow him," observed [E.M.] Forster [of W.H. Auden's poem "September 1, 1939"]. Forster was not alone. World War II was a war fought by soldiers who read poetry. The arsenal of democracy included textbooks with thin covers, and surveys of literature both classic and modern. As a child, I learned poetry first by reading the blue-covered manual my father had been issued as an 18-year-old volunteer.
from The Nation: Auden's Love Poem for Humanity
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