Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0 (B), University of Regensburg (Faculty for Literature and Cultural Studies), course: Hauptseminar: W.H. Auden, language: English, abstract: The origins of a critical view on the focal points of civilizations may be traced back in history very far. Perfect examples of ancient critique on urban life may be found in the Old Testament, e.g. the depiction of the civilizations of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah. The metaphorical content of these examples seems fairly clear: the reader is confronted with societies that either directly challenge the authority of God or don’t follow his Commandments and are therefore punished by a divine father figure, which restores the natural and spiritual order. However, from the beginning, the city motive may also be seen as well as a means of discourse on mankind’s cultural and social output. But modern city poetry is of course different from the ancient accounts of God’s wrath, which lead to catastrophes for one city or the other. Its roots are to be found in the works of major eighteenth century poets, e.g. William Blake’s London, in which he seems to recognize a new form of disorder being at work within the city limits. The nineteenth century brought forth poets like Wordsworth, who carried on to work on the theme but showed a different attitude towards the city. Because of its ever growing dimension, it was then perceived as a totally new and symbolic phenomenon, which raised philosophical questions about the state of society and the poet’s role within this complex. The tone of the responses to these questions was for the most part uncertain and personal. Finally,the twentieth century gave birth to a new kind of urban literature and poetry, with a symbolic meaning of the city motive, which was as varied as the ethnical, religious, social and political shades of the human community it referred to. Nevertheless, two tendencies may be observed within modern poetry and prose, the first one dealing with the content of the city symbol: “ ‘When the city ceases to be a symbol of art and order,’ writes Lewis Mumford, ‘it acts in a negative fashion: it expresses and helps to make more universal the fact of disintegration.’ “1 The second one is the mode major poets such as T.S. Eliot in his famous The Waste Land attempt to cope with the reality of the twentieth century city: a controlling framework of myth, literature and history is employed in order to deal with the chaotic nature of their theme. Both points are to some extent true particularly for Auden’s later works. [...] 1 Johnston (1984: 246).

The first critical edition of Auden's only explicitly religious long poem For the Time Being is a pivotal book in the career of one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. W. H. Auden had recently moved to America, fallen in love with a young man to whom he considered himself married, rethought his entire poetic and intellectual equipment, and reclaimed the Christian faith of his childhood. Then, in short order, his relationship fell apart and his mother, to whom he was very close, died. In the midst of this period of personal crisis and intellectual remaking, he decided to write a poem about Christmas and to have it set to music by his friend Benjamin Britten. Applying for a Guggenheim grant, Auden explained that he understood the difficulty of writing something vivid and distinctive about that most clichéd of subjects, but welcomed the challenge. In the end, the poem proved too long and complex to be set by Britten, but in it we have a remarkably ambitious and poetically rich attempt to see Christmas in double focus: as a moment in the history of the Roman Empire and of Judaism, and as an ever-new and always contemporary event for the believer. For the Time Being is Auden's only explicitly religious long poem, a technical tour de force, and a revelatory window into the poet's personal and intellectual development. This edition provides the most accurate text of the poem, a detailed introduction by Alan Jacobs that explains its themes and sets the poem in its proper contexts, and thorough annotations of its references and allusions.

Charles Williams was a writer of unusual genius. He had an ability to make theological matters not merely interesting to the lay person; but to make them appear, what they in fact are, matters of Life and Death.

Bestselling novelist Alexander McCall Smith's charming account of how the poet W. H. Auden has helped guide his life—and how he might guide yours, too When facing a moral dilemma, Isabel Dalhousie—Edinburgh philosopher, amateur detective, and title character of a series of novels by best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith—often refers to the great twentieth-century poet W. H. Auden. This is no accident: McCall Smith has long been fascinated by Auden. Indeed, the novelist, best known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, calls the poet not only the greatest literary discovery of his life but also the best of guides on how to live. In this book, McCall Smith has written a charming personal account about what Auden has done for him—and what he just might do for you. Part self-portrait, part literary appreciation, the book tells how McCall Smith first came across the poet's work in the 1970s, while teaching law in Belfast, a violently divided city where Auden's "September 1, 1939," a poem about the outbreak of World War II, strongly resonated. McCall Smith goes on to reveal how his life has related to and been inspired by other Auden poems ever since. For example, he describes how he has found an invaluable reflection on life's transience in "As I Walked Out One Evening," while "The More Loving One" has provided an instructive meditation on unrequited love. McCall Smith shows how Auden can speak to us throughout life, suggesting how, despite difficulties and change, we can celebrate understanding, acceptance, and love for others. An enchanting story about how art can help us live, this book will appeal to McCall Smith's fans and anyone curious about Auden.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

When Auden and MacNeice travelled in Iceland together in 1936, the verse, prose, letters and notes they recorded would appear the following year as 'Letters from Iceland'.