W. H. Auden

by

Joyce Hemsley

Series of famous British names:

W.H. AUDEN (WYSTAN HUGH)
British Poet born in York,
England, nineteen-o-seven.
Died and buried in Austria
October nineteen seventy-three.

"If you read the history books,
you will be aware,
that Britain and America
join in unity to share
the name of W.H. Auden,
who possessed a brilliance rare,
and all together we now proclaim
the greatness of his name."
(Joyce Hemsley).

Wystan Hugh Auden was educated
at Christ Church, Oxford University.
He became a teacher 1930-35; and
subsequently married Erika Mann.
He wrote love poems -
This Lunar Beauty
Lay your sleeping head My Love
Out on the Lawn I lie in Bed.

Auden befriended MacNeice,
Spencer and C.Day Lewis, prior to
moving to America in the first year
of the Second World War; and in
1946 became a U.S.Citizen, and
soon wrote "The Age of Anxiety."...

he wrote Igor Stravinski's Opera
for The Rake's Progress.
Back in England, he was apponted
Professor of Poetry, Oxford,
a post he maintained for five years.
Wystan Hugh Auden continued to be
a leading light in the literary
world until he died in his sleep
in Austria. His grave stands there
beneath a Cross. A plaque in
remembrance is shown in
Westminster Abbey.

I quote his poem - Funeral Blues -
which was a theme in Four Weddings
and a Funeral. Here it is -

He was my North, my South, my East
and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest.
My moon, my midnight, my talk,
my song.
I thought that love would last forever
I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now, put out
every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle
the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up
the wood,
For nothing now can ever come
to any good.

(From Twelve Songs by W.H.Auden)

NEXT?
Why don't you look at As We Like It
by: Joyce Hemsley
from: Sunderland, England, UK

To visit all of Joyce Hemsley's poems, click HERE

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