At the Party

W. H. Auden

Unryhmed, unrhythmical, the chatter goes:

Yet no one hears his own remarks as prose.

Beneath each topic tunelessely discussed

The ground-bass is reciprocal mistrust.

The names in fashion shuttling to and fro

Yield, when deciphered, messages of woe.

You cannot read me like an open book.

I’m more myself than you will ever look.

Will no one listen to my little song?

Perhaps I shan’t be with you very long.

A howl for recognition, shrill with fear,

Shakes the jam-packed apartment, but each ear

Is listening to its hearing, so none hear.