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W. H. Auden: A Commentary
This is an indispensable reference guide to the works of one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. W. H. Auden's writing is notoriously complex—full of puzzling allusions and shaped by influences as diverse as Old English poetry and Auden's own theory of psychosomatic illness. To help readers understand Auden's work, the poet and scholar John Fuller examines all of Auden's published poems, plays, and libretti, leaving out only some juvenilia. In unprecedented detail, he reviews the works' publishing history, paraphrases difficult passages, and explains allusions. He points out interesting variants (including material abandoned in drafts), identifies sources, looks at verse forms, and offers critical interpretations. Along the way, he presents a wealth of facts about Auden's works and life that are available in no other publication.


The book is a major revision of Fuller's critically acclaimed Reader's Guide to Auden, published in 1970. It contains more than twice the material of that earlier volume. Fuller organizes the book on the basis of the individual collections that Auden himself originally published, with sections of "uncollected" work interwoven. Clear, meticulously researched, and carefully designed for ease of use, it is an essential guide for anyone interested in Auden's remarkable and sometimes elusive writing.

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W. H. Auden: A Commentary
This is an indispensable reference guide to the works of one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. W. H. Auden's writing is notoriously complex—full of puzzling allusions and shaped by influences as diverse as Old English poetry and Auden's own theory of psychosomatic illness. To help readers understand Auden's work, the poet and scholar John Fuller examines all of Auden's published poems, plays, and libretti, leaving out only some juvenilia. In unprecedented detail, he reviews the works' publishing history, paraphrases difficult passages, and explains allusions. He points out interesting variants (including material abandoned in drafts), identifies sources, looks at verse forms, and offers critical interpretations. Along the way, he presents a wealth of facts about Auden's works and life that are available in no other publication.


The book is a major revision of Fuller's critically acclaimed Reader's Guide to Auden, published in 1970. It contains more than twice the material of that earlier volume. Fuller organizes the book on the basis of the individual collections that Auden himself originally published, with sections of "uncollected" work interwoven. Clear, meticulously researched, and carefully designed for ease of use, it is an essential guide for anyone interested in Auden's remarkable and sometimes elusive writing.

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W. H. Auden: A Commentary

W. H. Auden: A Commentary

by John Fuller
W. H. Auden: A Commentary

W. H. Auden: A Commentary

by John Fuller

Overview

This is an indispensable reference guide to the works of one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. W. H. Auden's writing is notoriously complex—full of puzzling allusions and shaped by influences as diverse as Old English poetry and Auden's own theory of psychosomatic illness. To help readers understand Auden's work, the poet and scholar John Fuller examines all of Auden's published poems, plays, and libretti, leaving out only some juvenilia. In unprecedented detail, he reviews the works' publishing history, paraphrases difficult passages, and explains allusions. He points out interesting variants (including material abandoned in drafts), identifies sources, looks at verse forms, and offers critical interpretations. Along the way, he presents a wealth of facts about Auden's works and life that are available in no other publication.


The book is a major revision of Fuller's critically acclaimed Reader's Guide to Auden, published in 1970. It contains more than twice the material of that earlier volume. Fuller organizes the book on the basis of the individual collections that Auden himself originally published, with sections of "uncollected" work interwoven. Clear, meticulously researched, and carefully designed for ease of use, it is an essential guide for anyone interested in Auden's remarkable and sometimes elusive writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691070490
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 09/25/2000
Pages: 640
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Fuller is a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he teaches English. He is also a poet and novelist. His collection Stones and Fires won the 1996 Forward Prize and his Collected Poems also appeared recently.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Poems (1928) 3

Paid on Both Sides 18

Uncollected Poems 1925-30 36

Poems (1930) 52

Poems (1933) 78

The Orators 85

The Dance of Death 123

The Dog Beneath the Skin 126

Look, Stranger! 145

Uncollected Poems 1930-36 178

The Ascent of F6 193

Letters from Iceland 202

Alfred 225

Hadrian's Wall 227

Journey to a War 230

On the Frontier 245

Another Time 249

Uncollected Poems 1937-39 296

The Dark Valley 305

Paul Bunyan 308

The Double Man 319

For the Time Being 345

The Sea and the Mirror 356

The Age of Anxiety 369

Poems first published in the Collected Poetry (1945) 388

Nones 405

Uncollected Poems 1940-48 431

The Rake's Progress 436

Delia 440

The Shield of Achilles 443

Homage to Clio 463

Elegy for Young Lovers 481

About the House 484

The Bassarids 504

City Without Walls 508

Academic Graffiti 527

Epistle to a Godson 529

Thank You, Fog 544

Uncollected Poems 1949-73 554

Index of Titles and First Lines 558

General Index 575


What People are Saying About This

Edward Mendelson

Fuller's book is a deeply impressive and valuable achievement that has no real equal in the critical literature on any modern poet. It explains thousands of allusions in all of Auden's plays and poems--and covers virtually all of Auden's published work,not only the poems that he collected. But it is not simply the work of a source-hunter. It is the work of a scholar and successful poet,who can write illuminatingly about verse form and poetic tone as well as about sources and influences. In almost every case,Fuller makes the poems he writes about more enjoyable to read,not merely more comprehensible. It is an astonishingly full guide to reading and research that will remain the main reference work on Auden for many decades.

From the Publisher

"Fuller's book is a deeply impressive and valuable achievement that has no real equal in the critical literature on any modern poet. It explains thousands of allusions in all of Auden's plays and poems—and covers virtually all of Auden's published work, not only the poems that he collected. But it is not simply the work of a source-hunter. It is the work of a scholar and successful poet, who can write illuminatingly about verse form and poetic tone as well as about sources and influences. In almost every case, Fuller makes the poems he writes about more enjoyable to read, not merely more comprehensible. It is an astonishingly full guide to reading and research that will remain the main reference work on Auden for many decades."—Edward Mendelson, Editor of The Complete Works of W. H. Auden (Princeton)

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Literary Criticism
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English Literature
English Poetry - 20th Century - Literary Criticism
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Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh) (1907-1973)->Criticism and interpretation

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