Let the More Loving One Be Me

The More Loving One

 Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

 That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

 But on earth indifference is the least

 We have to dread from man or beast.

 How should we like it were stars to burn

 With a passion for us we could not return?

 If equal affection cannot be,

 Let the more loving one be me.

 Admirer as I think I am

 Of stars that do not give a damn,

 I cannot, now I see them, say

 I missed one terribly all day.

 Were all stars to disappear or die,

 I should learn to look at an empty sky

 And feel its total dark sublime,

 Though this might take me a little time.

-- W H Auden