The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (W.H. Auden: Critical Editions) [Hardcover]

W. H. Auden (Author), Arthur C. Kirsch (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691113718 | ISBN-13: 978-0691113715 | Publication Date: April 7, 2003

Written in the midst of World War II after its author emigrated to America, "The Sea and the Mirror" is not merely a great poem but ranks as one of the most profound interpretations of Shakespeare's final play in the twentieth century. As W. H. Auden told friends, it is "really about the Christian conception of art" and it is "my Ars Poetica, in the same way I believe The Tempest to be Shakespeare's." This is the first critical edition. Arthur Kirsch's introduction and notes make the poem newly accessible to readers of Auden, readers of Shakespeare, and all those interested in the relation of life and literature--those two classic themes alluded to in its title.

The poem begins in a theater after a performance of The Tempest has ended. It includes a moving speech in verse by Prospero bidding farewell to Ariel, a section in which the supporting characters speak in a dazzling variety of verse forms about their experiences on the island, and an extravagantly inventive section in prose that sees the uncivilized Caliban address the audience on art--an unalloyed example of what Auden's friend Oliver Sachs has called his "wild, extraordinary and demonic imagination."

Besides annotating Auden's allusions and sources (in notes after the text), Kirsch provides extensive quotations from his manuscript drafts, permitting the reader to follow the poem's genesis in Auden's imagination. This book, which incorporates for the first time previously ignored corrections that Auden made on the galleys of the first edition, also provides an unusual opportunity to see the effect of one literary genius upon another.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Sea and the Mirror is the most brilliant and unsettling of the four long poems Auden composed during his furiously industrious first decade in America . . . an intriguing mixture of the theatrical and the poetic. . . . [It] represents his most determined and considered attempt to 'grow up,' but it moves most by its failure to do so.
(Mark Ford New York Review of Books )

[An] excellent and beautifully produced edition. . . . The Sea and the Mirror has ambitions far above those which the modest label of 'A commentary' might suggest, and it attempts to clarify an entire aesthetic, both for the poet himself and (on a more abstract level) for all poetry and art in its relation to reality. Nor was this a question of aesthetics only, for Auden was determined that this work should offer a distinctively Christian philosophy of art, one which could announce, and validate, an entirely new depth and seriousness to his own life and writing.
(Peter McDonald Times Literary Supplement )

Even for those of us whose minds aren't particularly philosophical, The Sea and the Mirror can appeal through its language alone: It contains some of the poet's most accomplished verse, at once pellucid and delicately musical. . . . [R]ead The Sea and the Mirror--you will return to it, as with Auden's other poetry, all your life. You can find the text in various Auden collections, but you'll never regret investing in this handsome edition of these tender, heartbroken poems.
(Michael Dirda Washington Post Book World )

Review

It is wonderful to have this new edition of The Sea and the Mirror, which I have always considered Auden's greatest work written in America and certainly one of the summits of his career. The long speech of Caliban, channeling Henry James, is in itself a marvelment.
(John Ashbery )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (April 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691113718
• ISBN-13: 978-0691113715
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Auden's Christian Conception of Art ......BUT, September 29, 2011

By 

M. Hurley (KSA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (W.H. Auden: Critical Editions) (Paperback)

This book,'The Sea and the Mirror'', is billed as 'A Commentary on Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest''; a 50 page introduction (by Arthur Kirsch) and 30 pages of textual notes to support a 70 page poem in three chapters; in other words it is not for the novitiate. It is a poem but a poem written in part prose, Auden does for the Tempest what Joyce did in his work, i.e. mimic styles, in this case (briefly) that of Henry James so you'd better know your way around if you want to get anything at all out of your purchase. Beautifully bound, a lovely cover (from Princeton UP), it is a piece of art but it will not supply anything general, or any clues to the man or his times, so know what you are buying. Auden here is tampering with introjects and (so) if you don't already know the territory you will not find a map here.(Think of a surgeon operating on himself while describing the scene, the anatomy lesson by Dr Tulp, maybe...)

Written during the second war (1942-1944), Auden regarded it as his best work, his Ars Poetica, culminating in his year long lecture series at the New School for Social Research delivered in 1946-47, according to Kirsch. Written after emigrating to the US, one suspects the work was motivated by his then belief that 'poetry makes nothing happen', which (imo) better describes his subjective state after a very frustrating decade, the 1930's. In Act I of the Tempest, Prospero says 'I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated to closeness and the bettering of my mind with that which, but by being so retires, oer'-priz'd all popular rate....etc., Here Prospero admits neglecting his kingdom, allowing his brother to usurp him etc., you just wish Auden might have made a similar concession and not made up his mind that art was futile i.e. frivolous. Still, if you like stylistic innovation and Christian poetics, this is the meal for you.

-Í am attempting something which in a way is absurd, to show in a work of art, the limitations of art', explained Auden. Kirsch explains that in the concluding lecture to his New School course he praised Shakespeare for his consciousness of these limitations. 'There's something a little irritating in the determination of the very great artists, like Dante, Joyce and Milton, to create masterpieces and to think themselves important. To be able to devote one's life to art without forgetting that art is frivolous is a tremendous achievement of personal character. Shakespeare never takes himself too seriously". Hmm..

It sounds like Auden's lecture series would be 'more fun' than The Sea and the Mirror, doesn't it. (Unavailable, I think, maybe at the Berg Library but Randall Jarrell's lecture series on Auden was recently published and that's more readable and nicely irreverent). Auden's comment on frivolity etc., has to be taken with a grain of yes, sea salt, and Auden probably needed to take a look in the, yes, mirror when he was making these remarks but, after all, if we believe him, it is all supposed to be frivolous, isn't it? Answer -NO. Nobody believes his obsession with 'fun, 'but, of course, he was merely railing against circumstance, and who can blame him really.

Great, but only IF you first know your way around.