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 16
... society demands . But the rest of the poem proceeds to declare that things are not so simple , that love is more mysterious than society allows , that society's attempt to define it is to treat it like a sick patient with a familiar ...
... society demands . But the rest of the poem proceeds to declare that things are not so simple , that love is more mysterious than society allows , that society's attempt to define it is to treat it like a sick patient with a familiar ...
Page 189
... society . But this condescension to " democracy " has its slight taint of snobbery , as if Auden and his predecessor - counterpart , Lord Byron , would both look down with Parnassian disdain upon the sins and self - delusions of ...
... society . But this condescension to " democracy " has its slight taint of snobbery , as if Auden and his predecessor - counterpart , Lord Byron , would both look down with Parnassian disdain upon the sins and self - delusions of ...
Page 329
... society as of no value or importance . In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished , the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it , but a laborer today can rightly be called a ...
... society as of no value or importance . In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished , the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it , but a laborer today can rightly be called a ...
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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