Song

by W.H. Auden

     The chimney sweepers
Wash their faces and forget to wash the neck;
     The lighthouse keepers
Let the lamps go out and leave the ships to wreck;
     The prosperous baker
Leaves the rolls in hundreds in the oven to burn;
     The undertaker
Pins a small note on the coffin saying, “Wait till I return,
     I’ve got a date with Love.”

     And deep-sea divers
Cut their boots off and come bubbling to the top,
     And engine-drivers
Bring expresses in the tunnel to a stop;
     The village rector
Dashes down the side-aisle half-way through a psalm;
     The sanitary inspector
Runs off with the cover of the cesspool on his arm-
     To keep his date with Love.

This poem was read by Garrison Keillor (I would love to take his job when he retires) a few weeks ago for his The Writer’s Almanac radio spot. I did not have a chance to hear it that day, but I knew that something like this was bound to happen, so some months ago I subscribed Sarah to the mailing list for the show. Being the wonderful wife that she is, when one of these emails from Keillor is any good (which is more often than not), she forwards it to me. So, I read this gem and immediately thought - that sounds like a Nick Cave song. Googling Nick Cave and Auden shows that it might as well be. The second and third links on the page were the two that caught my eye.

Nick Cave’s Lecture on the Love Song, besides being cached on a site that can keep my attention for hours, is a fascinating revelation of Cave’s worldview, while his interview with Grant McLennan (an equally fascinating piece) tells a bit more of his early years.

Now, I know that Cave has been around long enough that his fans have already poured over anything I could possibly find about him. In fact, I think Sarah had read the lecture years ago. So, if this is old hat, I apologize. It was news to me.