Selected Poems [Paperback]

W H Auden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 1979

For many years there existed a general feeling that the selection made by Auden himself in 1968 was far from satisfactory. It was too short to provide a full introduction to such a large body of work; perhaps it was too weighted in favour of the later poetry; at the time it was made some famous poems, or portions of poems were still under an embargo imposed by Auden himself which remained in force until his death. This edition contains an introduction which is an examination of the nature of Auden's genius and of his position and stature in 20th-century literature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

After Reading A Child's Guide To Modern Physics
Archaeology
At The Grave Of Henry James
Atlantis
August 1968
Ballad
But I Can't
Caliban To The Audience
The Capital
The Cave Of Nakedness
The Common Life
Compline
Consider This And In Our Time
Control Of The Passes Was, He Saw, The Key
The Cutty Wren
Dame Kind
Death's Echo
Deftly, Admiral, Cast Your Fly
Doom Is Dark And Deeper Than Any Sea-dingle
Down There
Easily, My Dear, You Move, Easily Your Head
Encomium Balnei
Epitaph On A Tyrant
Epithalamium
Et In Arcadia Ego
Fairground
The Fall Of Rome (for Cyril Connolly)
First Things First
Fleet Visit
For Friends Only
Forty Years On
Friday's Child
From The Very First Coming Down
The Geography Of The House
Good-bye To The Mezzogiorno
Hearing Of Harvests Rotting In The Valleys
Homage To Clio
In Memory Of Sigmund Freud
In Memory Of W.b. Yeats
In Praise Of Limestone
In Sickness And In Health
In Time Of War: 1
In Time Of War: 10
In Time Of War: 11
In Time Of War: 12
In Time Of War: 13
In Time Of War: 14
In Time Of War: 15
In Time Of War: 16
In Time Of War: 17
In Time Of War: 18
In Time Of War: 19
In Time Of War: 2
In Time Of War: 20
In Time Of War: 21
In Time Of War: 22
In Time Of War: 24
In Time Of War: 25
In Time Of War: 26
In Time Of War: 27
In Time Of War: 3
In Time Of War: 4
In Time Of War: 5
In Time Of War: 6
In Time Of War: 7
In Time Of War: 8
In Time Of War: 9
Installing The American Kitchen [or, Grub First, Then Ethics]
Islands
It Was Easter As I Walked In The Public Gardens
Journey To Iceland
Lady, Weeping At The Crossroads
Lakes
Lament For A Lawgiver (from The Age Of Anxiety)
Lauds
Law, Say The Gardeners, Is The Sun
The Lesson
Let Your Sleeping Head, My Love
A Lullaby
Memorial For The City
Miss Gee
Moon Landing
The More Loving One
Mountains
Mundus Et Infans
Musee Des Beaux Arts
A New Year Greeting
Nobody I Know Would Like To Be Buried
Nocturne
Nones
Noon (from The Age Of Anxiety)
Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast
Now Though Night's Caressing Grip
O For Doors To Be Open And An Invite With Gilded Edges
O Love, The Interest Itself In Thoughtless Heaven
Ode To Terminus
Old People's Home
On The Circuit
On This Island
Only The Hands Are Living; To The Wheel Attracted
Orpheus
Our Hunting Fathers Told The Story
Out On The Lawn I Lie In Bed
Oxford
Plains And The Art Of Writing
Preface (stage Manager To Critics)
Prime
Prologue At Sixty
Prologue: The Birth Of Architecture
Prospero To Ariel
The Quest: Adventure
The Quest: The Adventurers
The Quest: The Average
The Quest: The City
The Quest: The Crossroads
The Quest: The Door
The Quest: The First Temptation
The Quest: The Garden
The Quest: The Hero
The Quest: The Lucky
The Quest: The Preparations
The Quest: The Presumptuous
The Quest: The Second Temptation
The Quest: The Third Temptation
The Quest: The Tower
The Quest: The Traveller
The Quest: The Useful
The Quest: The Waters
The Quest: The Way
The Quest: Vocation
Refugee Blues
River Profile
September 1, 1939
Sext
The Shield Of Achilles
Since You Are Going To Begin Today
Sir, No Man's Enemy, Forgiving All
Song
Song For St. Cecilia's Day
Song Of The Master And Boatswain
Spain - 1937
Streams
The Summer Holds: Upon Its Glittering Lake
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce. Antonio
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Adrian And Francisco
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Alonso
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Ferdinand
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Gonzalo
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Miranda
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Sebastian
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Stephano
Supporting Cast, Sotto Voce: Trinculo
Talking To Myself
Taller Today, We Remember Similar Evenings
Ten Songs: 7
Terce
A Thanksgiving
This Lunar Beauty
Though Aware Of Our Rank And Alert To Obey Orders(orators)
To Ask The Hard Question Is Simple
Tonight At Seven-thirty
Under Sirius
Under Which Lyra; A Revolutionary Tract For The Times
The Unknown Citizen
Unwanted And Went Out
Up There (for Anne Weiss)
Vespers
A Walk After Dark
Watch Any Day His Nonchalant Pauses, See
What's In Your Mind, My Dove, My Coney
Who Stands, The Crux Left Of The Watershed
Who's Who
Will You Turn A Deaf Ear
The Willow-wren And The Stare
Winds
Woods
Wrapped In A Yielding Air, Beside
You
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

This edition presents the original versions of many poems, which Auden revised to conform to his evolving political and literary attitudes later in his career. In this volume, Edward Mendelson has restored the early versions of some thirty poems generally considered to be superior to the later versions, allowing the reader to see the entire range of Auden's work. Selected and edited by Edward Mendelson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Faber Paperbacks; 1st Edition. edition (July 16, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571113966
• ISBN-13: 978-0571113965
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,646,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine selection of W.H. Auden, April 7, 2000

By 

William "williamnedblake" (Kansas City, MO, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: W.H. Auden: Selected Poems (Paperback)

W. H. Auden has always been one of my favourite modern poets, and the 'Selected Poems' one of my favourite volumes of his work. While he gained popular vogue for a time following Ben Elton's film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' (still one of the funniest films ever made), the full extent of Auden's ability is attested to in this volume, which includes some of his best loved and well recognised poems (and does not include 'Funeral Blues', the poem from 'Four Weddings' - if you're looking for that poem, try the short volume 'Tell Me the Truth About Love'). This selection by Edward Mendelson includes the original versions of poems edited by Auden later in his life, also giving a unique perspective on the early development of Auden's work.

Poetry is, of course, a very personal taste, and one man's favourite poem is another's jumble of ill-chosen words. That being said, it is difficult, to my mind, to find poems written in this century which surpass 'Oxford', 'Musée des Beaux Arts', 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats', 'Et in Arcadia Ego'...the list is practically as long as the table of contents. No matter the subject (even to something as curious as 'In Praise of Limestone'), Auden has words for us, words which are as powerful, as moving now as they were the day they were put to paper.

In short, if you are at all tempted by poetry, this volume is certainly worth your time.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book, May 25, 2000

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: W.H. Auden: Selected Poems (Paperback)

Auden is one of the great poets of the past century and one of the greatest ever in English. This is a particularly good collection of his work. The editor, Edward Mendelson, is a leading Auden scholar and Auden's literary executor. This volume contains all of Auden's major poetry including the great short lyrics, the major longer works, and my favorite, the great China sonnet sequence. In his later years, Auden altered the text of some famous earlier poems to change wordings he felt were false. In this edition, Mendelson uses the earlier versions of these subsequently altered verses. Many prefer the early versions though I find comparisons with the amended versions published in the equally wonderful Collected Poems, also edited by Mendelson, to be very interesting. I am not sure that the amended versions are worse, just different. It contains also a particularly insightful preface by Mendelson that does a very nice job of putting Auden into the context of 20th century English poetry. This is a wonderful book for those who love Auden's work. It can be read over and over again. It is also an excellent introduction for those encountering Auden for the first time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous introduction, August 26, 2003

By 

J. Ott "John Ott" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: W.H. Auden: Selected Poems (Paperback)

I can do little more than echo the other reviewers here. This is all a 'selected poems' shoud be: introductory and selective. Yes, "Funeral Blues" is missing. But no one can complain about what is here, which includes "In Time of War", the great sonnet sequence; "The Quest", another long sequence; and the entirety of THE SEA AND THE MIRROR, which is based on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. If you are, however, only interested in his love poems, I'd have to steer you toward TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, a nice little chapbook containing only those.

My own personal experience with this book may be relevant. It has served to introduce me to one of the finest poets of the last century and sparked a desire to read THE COLLECTED POEMS, also edited by Mendelson, to see how Auden re-wrote thirty of the brilliant poems here included. I'm continuing on my voyage; hope you are starting on yours.