Encased in talent like a uniform, <br />The rank of every poet is well known; <br />They can amaze us like a thunderstorm, <br />Or die so young, or live for years alone. <br />They can dash forward like hussars: but he <br />Must struggle out of his boyish gift and learn <br />How to be plain and awkward, how to be <br />One after whom none think it worth to turn. <br /> <br />For, to achieve his lightest wish, he must <br />Become the whole of boredom, subject to <br />Vulgar complaints like love, among the Just <br /> <br />Be just, among the Filthy filthy too, <br />And in his own weak person, if he can, <br />Must suffer dully all the wrongs of Man.<br /><br />W.H. Auden<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-novelist/
