Edward Mendelson

Wystan Hugh Auden

For many years there existed a general feeling that the selection made by Auden himself in 1968 was far from satisfactory. It was too short to provide a full introduction to such a large body of work; perhaps it was too weighted in favour of the later poetry; at the time it was made some famous poems, or portions of poems were still under an embargo imposed by Auden himself which remained in force until his death. This edition contains an introduction which is an examination of the nature of Auden's genius and of his position and stature in 20th-century literature.

Selected Poems

Restores the original versions of poems that Auden had at one time revised and replaced to bring his earlier works more in line with his later beliefs

Alejandra 

David McDonagh

Restores the original versions of poems that Auden had revised and includes such works as "Will You Turn a Deaf Ear," "This Lunar Beauty," "Noon," and "First Things First."

Aaron McCollough

Sara Gaspar Farinha

W. H. Auden

Edward Mendelson has significantly expanded his authoritative, chronological ordered edition of Auden's Selected Poems (first published in 1979), adding twenty items to the hundred in the original edition, and broadening the focus to reflect the wealth of forms, the rhetorical and tonal range, and the variousness of content in Auden's poetry, in the confines of one volume. In particular, there are newly included examples of Auden's mastery of light verse: the self-descriptive sequence of haiku called 'Profiles', the barbed wartime quatrains of 'Leap Before You Look', or 'Funeral Blues' itself. Also included are brief notes explaining references that may have become obscure, and a revised introduction drawing on recent additions to Auden scholarship.

Selected Poems

Reviews