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. |
From inside the book
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Page 11
... sort " value and what " their sort " indulge in . It is didactic in character but ironic in purpose , since it invites us to consider how all such neat divisions are false . Jarrell then returns to " incongruity , " inflated into the ...
... sort " value and what " their sort " indulge in . It is didactic in character but ironic in purpose , since it invites us to consider how all such neat divisions are false . Jarrell then returns to " incongruity , " inflated into the ...
Page 171
... sort of practical holiday : the chance to visit a wholly different and alien landscape with which Auden identified his Nordic ancestors , and the chance to write a " travel book , " which had a chance at a wide popular sale ( as ...
... sort of practical holiday : the chance to visit a wholly different and alien landscape with which Auden identified his Nordic ancestors , and the chance to write a " travel book , " which had a chance at a wide popular sale ( as ...
Page 184
... sort of light verse he has elected to write has not in modern times produced the kind of mastery that Byron evidences , and Auden humbly declares himself prepared merely to pasture his " poor silly sheep with Dyer / And picnic on the ...
... sort of light verse he has elected to write has not in modern times produced the kind of mastery that Byron evidences , and Auden humbly declares himself prepared merely to pasture his " poor silly sheep with Dyer / And picnic on the ...
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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