“ But there is one field in which the poet is a man of action, the field of language, and it is precisely in this that the greatness of the deceased is most obviously shown. Thus although Yeats had become an opponent of Auden’s values Auden’s tribute to Yeats on his death in 1939 is one of the most moving and just. Fortunately O’Duffy was a clown from whom Yeats separated quickly but not from some of O’Duffy’s ‘law and order’ ideas. In 1933 Yeats was for a short time drawn towards General O’Duffy, leader of the Irish Fascists - the Blue Shirts. In the 1930s confronted with social unrest, William Butler Yeats moved increasingly to the Right even urging “the despotic rule of the educated classes”. He could recognize the importance of style and the use of words of other poets such as Yeats. Auden was always concerned with the impact of words and his poems were usually clear and in a conversational style. It was a socially-conscious art but they never departed from a certain ironic tone and a concern with language. Auden wrote a number of verse plays that combined humor, irony with the issues of the day. The despotic rule of the educated classes. Wystan Hugh Auden by John Kjellström, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Auden, however was never attracted to the political parties that were the manifestations of Marxist views. All his life Auden was interested in developing frameworks to interpret social and religious categories and the Marxist dialectic was both a philosophy of history and a structure to understand current events. Auden became a Marxist because Marxism provided a ready-made structure to explain conflict. Auden and Isherwood became aware of social unrest and the clash between the Communists and the rising Nazi party. Eliot’s publisher Faber & Faber which published Auden on Eliot’s recommendation even if Eliot’s conservative religious and political positions were the opposite of Auden’s. He helped Auden with introductions to editors. The somewhat older Isherwood was already well introduced in the English publishing and art world. The two men had known each other slightly at Oxford University. In Berlin he began an intensive literary and on-again-off-again sexual relationship with Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986). The Berlin of Weimar Germany was more tolerant of open homosexuality than was the England of his youth. In 1930 shortly after publishing his first book of poems he went to live in Berlin. I don’t want any more hugs Make me some fresh tea. The one constant aspect running through his life and coloring his more personal writings was a homosexual bonding to men that he hoped would last and never did as reflected in his poem It’s No Use raising a Shout: Then there is the poet living in the USA during the 1940s who became a US citizen and became primarily concerned with what was called at the time “neo-orthodox Protestant” theology.įinally there is a third phase of his life the writer largely of book reviews and short literary essays living much of the time in Italy and Austria until his death in 1973 in Vienna. Auden (he rarely used his first names) of the 1930s the English political poet who reported on the Spanish civil war and the start of the Sino-Japanese war in 1939. Each group celebrates half of his poetic life and rather tries to forget about the other half seeing one part of his life as the perfect image of the modern poet who then lost his way. Wystan Hugh Auden, is appreciated as a bridge builder by two separate groups of poetry readers. By Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Auden, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York. Auden, Wystan Hugh Auden Featured Image: Plaque about W.H. JJRene Wadlow Berlin Goodbye, Chester Kallman, Christopher Isherwood, It’s No Use raising a Shout, The Age of Anxiety, W.H. Auden: (1907-1973) Poet of the Age of Anxiety.