The exploration of Romanticism is examined through the theme of the sea, with a particular focus on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Auden employs a Christian existentialist perspective to analyze the tendency of Romantic writers to escape from responsibility and community. Drawing from diverse sources, including the Bible and Baudelaire, the work delves into the complexities of human nature and the philosophical implications of seeking freedom in isolation.
W. H. Auden's poetry is explored in this comprehensive first complete edition, featuring both published and previously unpublished works. Edited by Edward Mendelson, this volume spans Auden's early career from 1927 to 1939, showcasing his development as a poet. It includes juvenilia, unpublished poems, and song lyrics intended for Benjamin Britten. The text presents original versions alongside detailed annotations that highlight Auden's revisions and clarify obscure references, offering a deep insight into his artistic evolution.
The second volume of this complete edition showcases W. H. Auden's poetic evolution from 1940 until his passing in 1973. It features all his published works from this period, including collections like The Double Man and Epistle to a Godson, alongside previously unpublished poems and songs. Edited by Edward Mendelson, the volume offers original texts, revised versions, and annotations that clarify obscure references, providing a comprehensive view of Auden as a mature artist. It also includes an edited version of his incomplete work, Thank You, Fog.
Plays and Other Dramatic Writings, 1928-1938
The collection showcases dramatic works by Auden and Isherwood, featuring notable plays like The Dog Beneath the Skin and The Ascent of F 6, alongside two distinct versions of Paid on Both Sides. It introduces previously unpublished plays such as The Enemies of a Bishop and The Chase, along with prose and verse for documentary films and a cabaret sketch. The anthology reveals young Auden's unpublished poems and includes detailed historical notes that illuminate the plays' production and revisions, enriching the reader's understanding of these theatrical pieces.
Lecture notes from Alan Ansen, later Auden's secretary and friend, from Auden's course taught during 1946-1947 at the New School for Social Research form the basis for this work on Auden's interpretation of all of the Shakespeare's plays.
When The Orators was originally published in 1932 it was described by Poetry Review as 'something as important as the appearance of Mr Eliot's poems fifteen years ago'. A long poem written in both prose and verse, it was a powerful addition to the canon of modernist poetry.
Auden's electrifying, enigmatic and extraordinarily influential debut collection was published by Faber in 1930, and simply entitled Poems. For the second edition (1933) he omitted seven items and added new poems in their place. Available again for the first time since 1950, this reissue follows the text of the second edition.
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 includes the text of the poem and a detailed introduction that explains its themes and sets it in its proper contexts.
Provides an analysis of Western culture during the Second World War that won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein as well as a ballet by Jerome Robbins.