Summary

The poem begins with a description of familiar stars in the night sky and the speaker’s musings about whether they would notice anything that happens on Earth. The speaker concludes that they would not, but that this is hardly a problem, because the speaker would prefer to be the one who loves more and notices more than their romantic partner. As the speaker thinks more deeply, they realize that as much as they proclaim to love the stars, there is no one star that stands out or seems important enough to fixate on or miss if they were to all disappear. The speaker realizes that they would be able to find beauty and solace in an empty night’s sky with enough time.

Analysis

Auden's poem explores love, pain, and disappointment through celestial imagery. He uses descriptions of the stars as stand-ins for...