A ragged urchin, aimless and alone,
Loitered about that vacancy; a bird
Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:
That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,
Were axioms to him, who'd never heard
Of any world where promises were kept,
Or one could weep because another wept.
One of my favorites too...
Yes, I like those last two lines particularly because Auden shows how the state has alienated people from each other and from their moral responsibility and even their emotional connections. Happening before our very eyes.