february september english poet later american citizen best known love poems funeral blues poems political social themes september shield poems cultural psychological themes poems religious themes time born york grew near birmingham professional middle class family attended english independent public schools studied english christ church oxford months berlin spent years teaching english public schools travelled iceland china order write books journeys moved united_states american citizen taught american universities followed occasional visiting 1950s new_york end life new_york oxford austria poetry noted stylistic technical achievement engagement politics morals love religion variety tone form content came wide public attention age book poems followed plays written collaboration built reputation left wing political writer moved united_states partly escape reputation work 1940s including long poems time sea mirror focused religious themes won pulitzer prize poetry long poem age anxiety title popular phrase describing modern era professor poetry oxford lectures popular students faculty served basis prose collection hand maintained lasting intermittent sexual friendship intense relations men fell love regarded relation marriage ended refused accept faithful relation demanded maintained friendship death lived house apartment non sexual relation collaborating opera music prolific writer prose essays reviews literary political psychological religious subjects worked times documentary films poetic plays forms performance career controversial influential critical views work ranged sharply dismissive treating lesser follower strongly claim greatest mind twentieth century death poems notably funeral blues des arts refugee blues unknown citizen september known wider public lifetime films broadcasts popular media life childhood born york england physician née trained served missionary nurse sons eldest farmer second church_of_england grew anglo catholic household followed high form doctrine ritual resembling traced love music language partly church services childhood believed descent lifelong fascination legends evident work family moved near birmingham father appointed lecturer later professor public health lifelong interests began father library age attended boarding schools returning home holidays visits landscape declining lead mining industry figure poems remote decaying mining village sacred landscape evoked late poem expected mining engineer passion words begun wrote later words pornographic story example sexually living person education attended surrey met later famous right novelist thirteen went norfolk friend asked wrote poetry realised poet soon discover lost faith gradual lost interest religion decisive change views school productions shakespeare played year published poems appeared school magazine later wrote chapter essays went christ church oxford scholarship biology switched english second year friends met oxford include cecil day lewis commonly identified 1930s shared identical left wing views left oxford class degree reintroduced fellow student years sent poems comments criticism maintained sexual friendship intervals relations collaborated plays travel book oxford years onward friends uniformly described funny extravagant sympathetic generous partly choice lonely groups comic way private settings shy certain welcome habits obsessive meeting choosing live amidst physical disorder britain europe late left britain months going berlin partly rebel english berlin experienced political economic unrest central subjects returning britain worked briefly tutor published book poems accepted firm remained british publisher books published began years boys schools years scotland years loved teacher downs june experienced later described vision sitting fellow teachers school suddenly found loved existence infinite value experience said later influenced decision return years erotic interests focused later said individual persons relationships unsuccessful tended unequal age intelligence sexual relations evolved long friendships contrasted relationships later regarded marriage word equals began based unique partners left britain early worked freelance reviewer lecturer film unit documentary film making branch post office headed work film unit met collaborated worked plays song cycles plays 1930s performed productions supervised varying degrees work reflected belief good artist bit reporting journalist spent months iceland gathered material travel book letters iceland written collaboration went spain intending drive ambulance republic spanish civil war work broadcasting propaganda job left visit seven week visit spain affected deeply social views grew complex found political realities ambiguous imagined attempting combine art spent months visiting china amid sino japanese war working book journey war way england stayed briefly new_york decided united_states spent late partly england partly brussels poems 1930s inspired love 1950s summarised emotional life famous equal affection let loving loving gift friendship starting late 1930s strong wish stability marriage letter friend called marriage subject life performed charitable acts public marriage convenience provided british passport escape nazis especially later years private embarrassed publicly revealed gift friend day catholic worker movement reported page new_york_times united_states europe sailed new_york_city january entering temporary departure britain later seen betrayal reputation suffered april moved california saw intermittently later years time met poet lover years described relation marriage began cross country honeymoon journey ended sexual relationship accept insistence mutual fidelity remained companions rest life sharing houses apartments death dedicated editions collected poetry lived house street shared famous centre artistic life nicknamed february house joined returning abandoned thirteen influenced partly called met partly reading christianity central element life britain declared war germany september told british embassy washington return needed told age qualified personnel needed taught english university_of_michigan called draft united_states_army august rejected medical grounds awarded fellowship use choosing instead teach end world war europe germany studying effects allied bombing german morale experience affected postwar work visit spain affected earlier return settled manhattan working freelance writer lecturer visiting professor smith american colleges citizen began europe italy rented house starting austria bought farmhouse said shed tears joy owning home time professor poetry oxford_university required lectures year fairly light workload allowed continue winter new_york lived place manhattan summer europe spending weeks year oxford earned income readings lecture tours writing new_yorker magazines moved winter home new_york oxford old college christ church offered cottage continued summer austria died vienna buried work published poems including seven long poems book length poetry scope method ranging style obscure twentieth century traditional forms ballads christmas baroque anglo saxon meters tone content poems ranged pop song clichés complex philosophical toes stars contemporary crises evolution society wrote essays reviews literature history politics music religion subjects collaborated plays opera worked group artists filmmakers documentary films 1930s early music group 1950s 1960s collaboration wrote collaboration brought greater erotic joy sexual relations rewrote discarded famous poems prepared later collected editions wrote rejected poems found boring sense expressed views held felt effective rejected poems include spain september literary argues introduction practice reflected sense power poetry reluctance includes poems rejected early texts poems revised early work began writing poems thirteen styles 19th century romantic poets especially later poets rural interests especially eighteen discovered adopted extreme version style found voice wrote poem later included collected work coming poems late 1920s tended elusive style alluded directly state themes loneliness loss poems appeared book poems pamphlet hand printed wrote dramatic work paid sides subtitled combined style content jokes english school life mixture tragedy dream play play introduced mixed styles content later work drama thirty short poems appeared published book poems 2nd edition seven poems replaced poems book lyrical hoped love themes personal social seasonal renewal poems easter walked doom dark sir man enemy lunar beauty theme early poems effect family ghosts term powerful unseen psychological effects preceding generations individual life title poem parallel theme present work contrast biological evolution psychological evolution cultures individuals voluntary deliberate aspects large scale work english study revised editions verse prose largely hero worship personal political life shorter poems style open accessible reflect new interest years poems took form style traditional ballads popular songs expansive classical forms like discovered german poet time main influences years work expressed left wing views widely known political poet privately ambivalent revolutionary politics reviewers recognised argues political views partly sense moral duty partly enhanced reputation later regretted having generally wrote revolutionary change terms change heart transformation society closed psychology fear open psychology love verse drama dance death political style theatrical revue later called leg pull play dog beneath skin written collaboration similarly quasi gilbert sullivan general idea social transformation prominent specific political action structure play written partly anti satire partly character self destroying examination motives taking public role political poet play included version funeral blues stop written eulogy politician later rewrote poem song lost love written sung soprano wrote lyrics 1930s worked briefly documentary films film unit writing famous verse commentary lyrics films attempts 1930s create widely accessible socially conscious art publisher chose title look stranger collection political love poems comic songs lyrics variety intense emotionally accessible verse hated title retitled collection edition island poems included book hearing lawn lie bed sound look stranger island later revised versions change hunting fathers arguing artist kind journalist view practice letters iceland travel book prose verse written included long social literary autobiographical commentary letter lord observing spanish civil war wrote politically engaged pamphlet poem spain later discarded collected works journey war travel book prose verse written visit sino japanese war collaboration play frontier anti war satire written broadway styles shorter poems engaged personal love dream lay sleeping head subject treated ironic wit songs miss included tell truth love revised version funeral blues effect public official culture individual lives casino school children dover wrote series dark ironic ballads individual failure miss victor appeared time poems including dover des arts written moved america memory unknown citizen law like love september memory written america partly anti heroic statements great deeds performed unique hope imitate ordinary individuals silly like said wasn clever teachers awe inspiring heroes middle period wrote long philosophical poem new year letter appeared miscellaneous notes poems double man time return began writing abstract verse theological themes comfortable religious themes verse open relaxed increasingly verse learned poetry work era addresses artist use persons material art corresponding moral obligation commitments recognising break sickness health worked long poems dramatic form differing form content time christmas sea mirror commentary shakespeare published time age anxiety baroque published separately new poems included collected edition earlier poems revised versions completing age anxiety focused shorter poems notably walk dark love feast fall rome evoked italian village book mediterranean atmosphere new work new theme sacred importance human body ordinary aspect breathing sleeping eating continuity nature body possible contrast division humanity nature emphasised 1930s poems themes included praise limestone memorial city wrote opera later collaborated operas separate prose book flood romantic sea based series lectures image sea romantic literature worked sequence seven good friday poems titled survey geological biological cultural personal history focused act murder poem study linear ideas time writing wrote sequence seven poems man relation nature sequences appeared book shield short poems including book title poem fleet visit unknown soldier wrote group poems history term mean set unique events human choices opposed nature set events created natural processes statistics anonymous forces crowds poems included great maker title poem collection homage later work late 1950s style range styles increased having moved summer home italy austria wrote good bye poems period include und poem prose poem relation love personal poetic language contrasting dame kind anonymous reproductive instinct poems including poems history appeared homage prose book hand gathered lectures gave oxford revised versions essays notes written new styles forms later work began writing translating verse sequence poems house austria thanksgiving habitat written styles included imitation appeared house poems included reflection lecture tours circuit late 1960s wrote vigorous poems including river profile poems looked life prologue years appeared city walls lifelong passion legend culminated verse translation later themes christianity learned partly poem friday child certain world commonplace book kind self portrait favourite quotations commentary arranged order subject prose book selection essays reviews books verse unfinished thank fog published posthumously include reflective poems language natural new year talking din work subdued completed poem ritual recurring themes later years reputation influence stature modern literature contested probably common critical view 1930s onward ranked major twentieth century british poets minority view prominent recent years ranks highest opinions ranged called complete wash wrote ironic style self defensive self merely irresponsible wrote close open wallace stevens wrote long terrible english poetry emerges undisputed master critical estimates divided start reviewing book poems wrote beginning master look forward recalling comment dismissed early work monument aims prevail contemporary poets fact hailed master shows criticism helping poetry downward path ironic style 1930s widely imitated younger poets wrote poem waited summer morning fiercely read knew widely described leader group comprised friends cecil day lewis mocked poet single poet named poetic plays including dog beneath skin ascent political poems spain gave reputation political poet writing progressive accessible voice contrast political stance provoked opposing opinions called work liberal democratic humane wrote characteristic trick image present ostensibly left wing views fact confined experience departure america debated britain parliament seeing emigration betrayal defenders introduction anthology modern poetry wrote arches stature suggested book titles generation samuel starting late 1930s detached ironic tone regular influential recalled 1940s modern poet formal influences american poetry style partly reaction influence 1940s 1960s critics lamented work declined earlier promise wrote series essays making case later work wide impact length study introductory essay concluded work force followed making canon account revisions earlier work systematic critical account poetry written conviction poetry offer reader entertainment instruction intellectual excitement variety aesthetic pleasures generous abundance unique time candidates recommended nobel prize literature recommended prize time death attained status respected elder statesman memorial stone placed poets corner writes time death convincing case assertion successor inherited sole claim supremacy died exceptions british critics tended treat early work best american critics tended favour middle later work group critics poets maintained unlike modern poets reputation decline death influence later writing especially strong younger american poets including typical later describe arguably 20th century greatest poet clearly greatest poet english public recognition work sharply increased funeral blues stop read aloud film weddings funeral subsequently pamphlet edition poems tell truth love sold copies september poem september widely circulated frequently broadcast public readings broadcast tributes marked centenary year published works following list includes books poems essays prepared lifetime complete list including works posthumous editions list works reprinted indicated references books poems london second seven poems substituted london includes poems paid sides dedicated english study london verse prose slightly revised london revised new preface london new_york dedicated london play dedicated poems new_york contains poems edition edition dance death dog beneath skin london new_york play dedicated 2nd new_york play dedicated look stranger london poems island new_york dedicated letters iceland london new_york verse prose dedicated frontier london play dedicated journey war london new_york verse prose dedicated time london new_york poetry dedicated double man new_york poems new year letter london dedicated time new_york london long poems sea mirror commentary shakespeare dedicated james time christmas mother new_york includes new poems dedicated age anxiety baroque new_york london verse won pulitzer prize poetry dedicated london similar collected poetry dedicated new_york london prose dedicated new_york london poems dedicated shield new york london poems won national book award poetry dedicated lincoln homage new_york london poems dedicated hand new_york london essays dedicated house new_york london poems dedicated collected shorter poems london new_york dedicated collected longer poems london new_york london new_york prose dedicated city walls poems london new_york dedicated certain world commonplace book new_york london quotations commentary dedicated poems london new_york dedicated new_york london essays dedicated thank fog poems london new_york dedicated film scripts opera coal face closing chorus film unit documentary night mail narrative film unit documentary published separately program note published opera young lovers opera opera based runner documentary film narrative love labour lost opera based shakespeare play musical collaborations hunting fathers song cycle written evening music recording director spoke verse texts play daniel verse narration production director
W. H. Auden