Customer Reviews

Selected Poems

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W.H. Auden was a twentieth century English poet. He emphasized the individual, past and present, in their frail condition.

Auden's writing varied as to subject, style, and type as he aged. Love poems, politics, culture, morals, individuals; what a wealth of poetry the public has from Auden because of the number of years he lived and wrote. Twenty poems have been added to this expanded edition including some of Auden's lighter poems. This aids the reader, student, or lover of Auden to see a more complex, complete, fuller and well-rounded poet.

A nice touch within the volume was the inclusion of brief notes explaining references that might be unclear. Other positive features consisted of chronological arrangement of material, and an index of titles and first lines.

Armchair Interviews says: A must for all Auden students, whether a casual reader or lover of his poetry.

Over four Christmases, this title sat on my Amazon wish list, ignored by my wife. This year, I bought it myself and let her wrap it for me. How lucky that, while my wish for this book sat ungranted, Edward Mendelson added explanatory notes and twenty poems to his original selection. The additional poems in this "Expanded Edition" include the lovely "Funeral Blues," whose recitation in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" provided most of that movie's emotional heft and social import.

The poems that Mendelson, Auden's literary executor, selected for this volume are printed here in their first book-published versions. Mendelson also edited Auden's "Collected Poems," from which Auden himself excluded some poems and for which he revised others. Mendelson discusses the choice between "Selected Poems" and "Collected Poems" in the Introduction to this book:

"The present selection ... [reprints] the texts of Auden's early editions and [includes] poems that he later rejected. A historical edition of this kind, one that reflects the author's work as it first appeared in public rather than his final version of it, is not intended as an argument that Auden's revisions or rejections were arbitrary or misguided; he had strong literary and ethical motives for choosing them, and in almost every instance they produced versions of his poems that were more coherent and complex than the originals. Probably the best way to experience Auden's work is to read the early versions first for their greater immediate impact, and the revised versions afterward for their greater subtlety and depth. For most readers this book will be a First Auden, and the edition of his 'Collected Poems' that was published posthumously according to his final intentions may be recommended as a Second."

The poems are arranged chronologically. I started at the front and got stuck - the language is thick and too abstracted for my taste. I almost gave up on him, but decided to read his later stuff before putting it down. I then read the book back to front and enjoyed his material from the 1960's the very best. I'm glad I didn't give up. My suggestion, start from the back.

WH Auden is one of the most beautiful writers and poets on love and loss, deeply intellectual, inherently questioning, this collection from evocative countryside penscapes to beautiful, beautiful words on relationships and the inner turmoil and joy they cause. This book is essential to anyone who knows and loves Auden or has yet to meet the vibrant passions within his words.

Length:: 4:02 Mins

There are three speakers in this poem: The observant "I" of the first line and of the last stanza, the lover, and, the longest part, the personified chimes of the modern city clock, rebuking the Romantic lover. The chimes have the most famous and affecting lines, but, importantly, not the last word. What is the "deep river" in the last line that seems to encompass both chimes and lover? This question is for the reader to ponder on his/her own. Like all great poetry, particularly Auden's, the poem is nuanced and ambiguous.