The Hidden Law: The Poetry of W.H. AudenIn this study - the fruit of a lifelong critical and imaginative engagement with W H. Auden's works - Anthony Hecht identifies and traces consistent habits of thought and belief within the poet's extensive and varied writings and through his celebrated conversions and repudiations, literary and otherwise. Hecht acknowledges that Auden's poems "both invite the intrusive scrutiny of the cryptographer and deny him access". Yet the readings he offers of poems from every phase of Auden's career, along with dramatic works and critical essays, manage to explicate and illuminate Auden's rich (and often cryptic) allusiveness without murdering to dissect. Among the themes that connect Auden's works are his deep interest in the workings of language; his notion of the ultimate frivolity of art; his interest in the nature of heroism; his understanding of the relation of public to private life; the development of his religious thought; and what Auden called the "hidden law" that governs human existence - a strict and retaliatory force, something like poetic justice, that gives form to our best literature and shapes our personal fates. Hecht identifies these preoccupations in Auden's work - and shows how they cut across the many genres in which he wrote - without losing sight of each poem's individual history and context. As one of Auden's most distinguished poetic heirs, Anthony Hecht is uniquely qualified to illuminate both the reading and the writing of these essential works of twentieth-century literature. |
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Page 52
... expressed here , and is as sensi- tive as any poet of the era ( and more sensitive than most public figures ) to the true dangers that existed . If love was called upon to furnish the international cure - all , this was no more than ...
... expressed here , and is as sensi- tive as any poet of the era ( and more sensitive than most public figures ) to the true dangers that existed . If love was called upon to furnish the international cure - all , this was no more than ...
Page 244
... expressed , or at least implied , in the New Year Letter . At the same time , he could see perfectly clearly how irrelevant to the operations of the world at large was this change in the quality and nature of his belief - and this lack ...
... expressed , or at least implied , in the New Year Letter . At the same time , he could see perfectly clearly how irrelevant to the operations of the world at large was this change in the quality and nature of his belief - and this lack ...
Page 246
... expressed by T. S. Eliot in his 1948 book , Notes Towards the Definition of Culture , in which he writes , " when , as in what follows in this chapter , I discuss Christian matters , that is because I am particularly concerned with ...
... expressed by T. S. Eliot in his 1948 book , Notes Towards the Definition of Culture , in which he writes , " when , as in what follows in this chapter , I discuss Christian matters , that is because I am particularly concerned with ...
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Common terms and phrases
acknowledged addressed admired allowed appears Auden authority become begins believe body Byron called Christian claim clear close Collected comes composed concerns continues course death described dream earlier early effect Eliot entirely essay example expressed eyes fact feel figure final follows give heart hero hope human important innocent interest kind language later least less Letter lines living look means mind moral nature never night once opening pass passage past perhaps play poem poet poetry political possible prayer present reader reason recall reference regard religious represent seems sense serious sexual social society sort speaks stanza suggests things thought turn voice writing written wrote Yeats