“There are some good things and some fantastic ones in Auden's early attitude; if the reader calls it a muddle I shall acquiesce, with the remark that the later position might be considered a more rarefied muddle. But poets rather specialize in muddles and I have no doubt which of the muddles was better for Auden's poetry: one was fertile and usable, the other decidedly is not. Auden sometimes seems to be saying with Henry Clay, "I had rather be right than poetry"; but I am not sure, then, that he is either.” IfsSometimesSeemsMightAttitudeDoubtPositionPoetReaderGood ThingsFantasticNot SureNo DoubtClayRemarksFertileMuddleAuden Author:Randall Jarrell
“Auden, who asked two things of an imagined world-that it be somehow like ours and somehow unlike-would be Ben Marcus's ideal reader, yet even without the poet's dire program, I am altogether taken by this hilarious and sexy alternative universe. Just imagine! it is all done with words instead of mirrors, so much more reliable and so much more heartbreaking. Thus Prospero enthralls his crew.” WorldTwoDoneWould BeUniverseTakenImaginePoetReaderIdealsProgramMirrorsSexyAlternativesTwo ThingsCrewHeartbreakingAudenProspero Author:Richard Howard
“One way or another, all the poets of the thirties and forties reacted to Auden, either by rejecting him or trying to absorb him.” WayTryingPoetryLiteraturePoetOne WayFortyRejectingAuden Book:Poetry Notebook: 2006–2014 Source: Poetry Notebook: 2006–2014
“The high-water mark, so to speak, of Socialist literature is W.H. Auden, a sort of gutless Kipling.” PoetryLiteratureSpeakWaterPoetMarkSocialismSocialistAudenKipling Author:George Orwell
“A poet must never make a statement simply because it sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true." - W. H. Auden "A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness...It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.” BelieveSoundPoetExcitingStatementsBeing TrueThroatLumpsHomesicknessAudenLovesicknessLump In The Throat Author:Robert Frost
“I think it was W.H. Auden who said he was lucky that his first favorite poet was Thomas Hardy, who was a good but not a great poet, because if you are exposed to the greats too soon it can just squash you as a writer.” IfsThinkingFirstsSaidPoetLuckyExposedHardyGreat PoetSquashAuden Author:David Duchovny