Table Of ContentNEW
EDITION
PUDEN
W. AUDEN
H.
Selected Poems
NEW
EDITION
AUDEN
W.
H.
Poems
Selected
NEW
EDITION
Edited by
EDWARD MENDELSON
VINTAGE BOOKS
A Division of Random House
New York
AVINTAGEORIGINAL, March 1979
FirstEdition
Copyright 1934,' 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1945, 1947,
1951, 1955; © 1960, 1965, 1969, 1972 by W. H. Auden.
Copyright ©1974, 1976byEdward Mendelson, William
Meredith, and Monroe K. Spears, executors of the
Estate of W. H. Auden. Copyright renewed 1962, 1965,
1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973 by W. H. Auden. Copy-
right renewed 1975 by Edward Mendelson, William
Meredith and Monroe K. Spears, executors of the
Estate ofW. H. Auden.
This selection Copyright © 1979 by Edward Men-
delson, William Meredith and Monroe K. Spears,
executors of the Estate of W. H. Auden. Preface
Copyright © 1979 by Edward Mendelson.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-
American Copyright Conventions. Published in the
United States by Random House, Inc., New York,
and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of
Canada Limited, Toronto.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Auden, Wystan Hugh, 1907-1973.
Selected poems.
I. Mendelson, Edward.
PS3501.U55A17 1979 821\9'12 78-55719
ISBN 0-394-72506-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
98765432
Book design: Charlotte Staub
Contents
Preface ix
1. Who stands, the crux left of the watershed 1
2. From the very first coming down 2
3. Control of the passes was, he saw, the key 3
4. Taller to-day, we remember similar evenings 3
5. Watch any day his nonchalant pauses, see 4
6. Will you turn a deaf ear 5
7. Sir, no man's enemy, forgiving all 7
8. It was Easter as I walked in the public gardens 7
9. Since you are going to begin to-day 12
10. Consider this and in ourtime 14
11. This lunar beauty 16
12. To ask the hard question is simple 17
13. Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle 18
14. What's in your mind, my dove, my coney 19
15. "O where are you going?" said reader to rider 20
16. Though aware of our rank and alert to obey orders 20
17. O Love, the interest itself in thoughtless Heaven 25
18. O what is that sound which so thrills the ear 26
19. Hearing of harvests rotting in the valleys 28
20. Out on the lawn Ilie in bed 29
21. A shilling life will give you all the facts 32
22. Our hunting fathers told the story 33
23. Easily, my dear, you move, easily your head 33
24. The Summer holds: upon its glittering lake 36
25. Now through night's caressinggrip 41
26. O for doors to be open and an invite
with gilded edges 42
27. Look, stranger, at this island now 43
Now
28. the leaves are falling fast 43
29. Dear, though the night is gone 44
30. Casino 45
31. Journey to Iceland 46
32. "O who can ever gaze his fill" 48
33. Lay your sleeping head, my love 50
34. Spain 51
35. Orpheus 55
36. Miss Gee 55
37. Wrapped in a yielding air, beside 59
38. As I walked out one evening 60
39. Oxford 63
40. In Time of War 64
41. The Capital 78
42. Musee des Beaux Arts 79
43. Epitaph on a Tyrant 80
44. In Memory of W. B. Yeats 80
45. Refugee Blues 83
46. The Unknown Citizen 85
47. September 1,1939 86
48. Law, say the gardeners, is the sun 89
49. In Memory of Sigmund Freud 91
50. Lady, weeping at the crossroads 95
51. Song for St. Cecilia's Day 96
52. The Quest 99
53. But I Can't 110
54. In Sickness and in Health 111
55. Jumbled in the common box 115
56. Atlantis 116
57. At the Grave of Henry James 119
58. Mundus et Infans 123
59. The Lesson 125
60. The Sea and the Mirror 127
61. Noon 175
62. Lament for a Lawgiver 176
63. Under Which Lyre 178
64. The Fall ofRome 183
65. In Praise of Limestone 184
66. Song 187
67. A Walk After Dark 188
68. Memorial for the City 190
69. Under Sirius 195
70. Fleet Visit 197
71. The Shield of Achilles 198
72. The Willow-Wren and the Stare 200
73. Nocturne 201
74. Bucolics 202
75. Horae Canonicae 216
76. Homage to Clio 232
77. First Things First 236
78. The More Loving One 237
79. Friday's Child 237
80. Good-bye to the Mezzogiorno 239
81. Dame Kind 242
82. You 245
83. After Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics 246
84. On the Circuit 248
85. Et in Arcadia Ego 250
86. Thanksgiving for a Habitat 252
87. Epithalamium 278
88. Fairground 280
89. River Profile 282
90. Prologue at Sixty 284
91. Forty Years On 287
92. Ode to Terminus 289
93. August 1968 291
94. A New Year Greeting 292
95. Moon Landing 294
96. Old People's Home 295
97. Talking to Myself 296
98. A Lullaby 299
99. A Thanksgiving 300
100. Archaeology 302
A Note on the Text 305
Index of Titles and First Lines 307
