Customer Reviews

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

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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.