Grammar and Nothingness

From Helen Vendler's piece on university admissions in Harvard Magazine:

W.H. Auden famously said—after seeing the Spanish Civil War—that “poetry makes nothing happen.” And it doesn’t...

One feels Heidegger and Sartre have lived in vain. Why do we not say:

W.H. Auden famously said—after seeing the Spanish Civil War—that “poetry makes nothing happen.” And it does.

I think of Diogenes rolling his barrel on the parade ground, making "nothing happen" in preparation for war. Anyone can make something happen. (And they do...) Beauty is difficult.

[PS: Another example: "Music makes nothing happen, either...", where she could have said, "Music makes nothing happen, too."]