I, me, ouch!, mine

The I-feeling: a feeling of being-responsible-for. (It cannot accompany a verb in the passive.) I wake in the morning with a violent headache and cry Ouch! This cry is devoid of I-feeling. Then I think : - "I have a hangover"; some I-feeling accompanies this thought - the act of locating and identifying the headache is mine - but very little. Then I think: - "I drank too much last night." Now the I-feeling is much stronger...

- WH Auden, 'Dichtung und Wahrheit'