Number 6, we're informed, is a great fan of W. H. Auden.   Okay, here's my favorite W. H. Auden poem:

As I Walked Out One Evening
    –W. H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,
       Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
       Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
       I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
       "Love has no ending.

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
       Till China and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
       And the salmon sing in the street.

"I'll love you till the ocean
       Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
       Like geese about the sky.

"The years shall run like rabbits
       For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages
       And the first love of the world."

But all the clocks in the city
       Began to whirr and chime:
"O let not Time deceive you,
       You cannot conquer Time.

"In the burrows of the Nightmare
       Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
       And coughs when you would kiss.


"In headaches and in worry
       Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
       To-morrow or to-day.

"Into many a green valley
       Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
       And the diver's brilliant bow.

"O plunge your hands in water,
       Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
       And wonder what you've missed.

"The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
       The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
       A lane to the land of the dead.

"Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
       And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer
       And Jill goes down on her back.

"O look, look in the mirror,
       O look in your distress;
Life remains a blessing
       Although you cannot bless.

"O stand, stand at the window
       As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
       With your crooked heart."

It was late, late in the evening,
       The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming
       And the deep river ran on.
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Quoth I: "Doesn't get much better than that!"
Dave Oesterreich