The Work of W. H. Auden
The work of W. H. Auden has been described as the most difficult and most original of all modern poets. He resisted the Romantic and post-Romantic traditions, referring to Keats and Shelley as "Kelly and Sheets" in one poem. Known as a pioneer of modern poetry, Auden broke with the post-Romantic tradition in England. He is also the first poet in the English language to make use of imagery from clinical psychoanalysis, or analysis of emotional disorders.
Poems
The poems of Wystan Hugh Auden are renowned for their stylistic and technical achievement. The poet was engaged in morality, politics, religion, and love, and his poems were often crafted in a variety of tones and forms. Read these selections to get a taste of the poet's oeuvre. Listed below are just a few of the many notable works by Wystan Hugh Auden.
Career
The British-American poet Wystan Hugh Auden is perhaps best known for his poems, which have been praised for their technical and stylistic achievement. Auden's works deal with issues as diverse as politics, morality, love, and religion. The poet's varied works are also notable for their range of tones and forms. This article will explore some of the highlights of Auden's career, and discuss how you can learn more about his work.
Influence on Anglophone World
Throughout his lifetime, W. H. Auden has been described as a progressive who ultimately transformed into an old-fashioned liberal pragmatist. He argued that the satisfaction of basic human needs was a more important goal than revolutionary ideologies. Auden cited the right to food, housing, and medical attention as the only worth-while goals in the global revolution.
Poems About Death
One of W. H. Auden's poems, "Funeral Blues," discusses how death can be both a blessing and a curse. The speaker acknowledges that death is an unavoidable fact of life. Yet, in the poem, he instructs his listeners to change the world around them, as if it were a rotting corpse. The speaker is so sad that he would even kill his own son.
Inspiration for Poems
In his many poems, W. H. Auden reflects on the nature of love and death. The poet grew up in a time of war, both in Europe and in Asia. He was also part of the Spanish Civil War and the Chinese Revolution. The poet's experience in both places inspires his work, but he never becomes a regional poet. He never gets too comfortable with his surroundings, but he haunts them to a degree that enables him to impart his blessing to the people he meets there.
