DOCSLIB.ORG

Durham E-Theses

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses The intellectual background of the poetry of W.H. Auden Davison, Trevor How to cite: Davison, Trevor (1974) The intellectual background of the poetry of W.H. Auden, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9980/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk THE INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND OF THE POETRY OF W.H. AUDEN Trevor Davison Master of Letters thesis, 1974 University of Durham The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. CONTENTS ABSTRACT i-iii INTRODUCT ION i - i i CHAPTER ONE 1-157 CHAPTER TWO 138- 231 CHAPTER THREE 232-355 CHAPTER FOUR 356-450 INDEX- BIBLIOGRAPHY ABSTRACT •Intellectual background' refers to the ideologies upon which Auden draws and the poetic theory arising from the interaction of these ideas and his practice. The thesis is divided into four chapters, the first dealing with Auden's introduction to poetry in 1922 and his subsequent imitation of Hardy and Eliot. Eliot's theory of impersonality and the austerity of Saga literature produce a clinical effect in Poems 1928. The Norse mood dominates the charade Paid on Both Sides (I93O) which uses material from the Mummer's play and contemporary German theatre. Poems 1950 utilises theories of Blake, Lawrence, Freud, Honer Lane and Groddeck to criticise the depressed social and spiritual state of England. Chapter Two considers The Orators (1932) which demonstrates that oratory, including poetry, is a substitute for action. Didacticism of a new directness marks Auden's first play The Dance of Death (1935)• i*8 basis, returned to in On the Frontier (1958), being the Capitalist-Marxist dichotomy. The Dog beneath the Skin (1934) and The Ascent of F6 (1955), written with Isherwood, deal respectively with the necessity of choice and the will for psychic health. Auden's technique becomes more lyrical in Look, Stranger! (1936) and Letters from Iceland (1937) which includes the 'Letter to Lord Byron'. Two works consider actual wars: Spain (1937) dramatises universal guilt and Journey to a War (193S) deals ii lyrically with the hardships and anomalies of war. The occasional poem is introduced in Another Time (1940). In three long essays the relationship between Christianity, art and Communism is examined. Chapter Three deals with the four long, Christian poems written in America. New Year Letter (1941) is his longest attempt at philosophising in verse . With copious appended Notes it draws on several theorists and theologians especially Kierkegaard. For the Time Being (1944) takes the form of an oratorio dramatising the mystery of the Incarnation in Kierkegaardian terms. The Sea and the Mirror (1944)> a commentary on The Tempest, examines the dichotomy of man's nature and imagination, concluding that art is merely a surrogate of the 'real Word'. The Age of Anxiety (1947) adopts the alliterative style of Old English verse to chart the spiritual journey of four people in wartime. Chapter Four, (1948-1969)J examines Auden's collected criticism. The Enchafed Flood (1950) is a collation of stock Romantic images while The Dyer's Hand (1962) comprises aphoristic reflections on art and life, and essays on Shakespeare, America, opera and Christianity, the latter two recurring in Secondary Worlds (1968). The poetry of this period is exuberant, its five books having distinguishable themes. Nones (1951) is concerned with the City and the need to civilise it; The Shield of Achilles (1955) looks to Rome and the Mediterranean; Homage to Clio (I960) meditates on History, Time and Nature; About the House (1966) illustrates the concept of a habitat and City without Walls (1969) includes the more personal self-analyses of the elderly poet. Auden's extreme awareness of his poetic objectives is the main impression left by his writing. INTRODUCTION 'Intellectual background' refers to the body of ideas which make up Auden's theories of poetry and life, either original or the result of influence by other writers and theorists. Auden's poetry and prose are examined chronologically, their theoretical content abstracted, its origins specified, its development traced and its relation to the poet's practice made clear. It has seemed desirable both to correlate intellectual exegesis and literary criticism and to make the examination as comprehensive as possible. The problem of defining exactly what constitutes an 'idea' is facilitated by the extremely intellectual cast of Auden's imagination and expression, and by the large number of articles and essays he has written elaborating his views, especially about poetry. (Reference is made to several prose pieces which have received little critical attention before.) Necessarily, however, there is a tendency to assume that influences can be specified more precisely than is perhaps the case and that the poet was absolutely conscious of what he was writing. (It seems, though, that both assumptions may be more justifiable of Auden than of most poets.) The thesis deals with Auden's writing from its inception in 1922 to the date of City without Walls, I969. It is divided into four chapters covering the years 1922-1932, 1932-1939, 1939-1948, I948-I969 respectively. The work of each period seems to form a distinct unity though the poet's development is, of course, continuous. CHAPTER ONE (1922-1932) This period includes Auden's introduction to writing poetry and his first three full-length works : Poems 1928 , Paid on Both Sides and Poems 1930 • The period is obviously important for the indication it gives of Auden's first approach to poetry and the rapidity of his subsequent development both of technique and of a point of view. The poet has provided a comprehensive portrait of himself as a schoolboy: The son of book-loving, Anglo-Catholic parents of the professional class, the youngest of three brothers, I was mentally precocious, physically backward, short-sighted, a rabbit at all games, very untidy and grubby, a nail-biter, a physical coward, dishonest, sentimental, with no community sense whatever, in fact a typical little highbrow and difficult child. Until the age of sixteen Auden's interests were mainly scientific. He was particularly interested in the machinery and techniques of lead mining and wanted to be a mining engineer. As a result his (1) '"Honour": Gresham's School, Holt', The Old School, edit. Graham Greene, (London, 1934)» P«9 - 2 - reading had included such specialised works as Machinery for Metaliferous Mines and Lead and Zinc Ores of Northumberland and Alston Moor.^^ His father's profession as a doctor placed before him a library of medical books such as The Edinburgh School of Surgery and Dangers to Health (a Victorian treatise on plumbing), as well as works on human anatomy from which, according to Isherwood who attended St. Edmund's Preparatory School with him, he divulged "the first naughty stupendous breath-taking hints (2) of sex." His Icelandic ancestry and High Church upbringing (his second name is taken from St. Wystan of Repton) meant that he grew up familiar both with the Icelandic sagas and legends, and with Anglican hymns and psalms. Clearly all these were latent influences on the emergent poet. Having made the decision to write poetry "one afternoon in (5) March at half-past three"w/ in 1922, he turned for models from which to learn the rudiments of writing to the library (1) The list of Auden's reading is condensed from several sources by M.K.Spears in his The Poetry of W.H.Auden; The Disenchanted Island , (New York, 1963), p. 61, note 2. (This work is hereafter referred to by its author's name alone.) (2) Christopher Isherwood, Lions and Shadows, (London, 1937)i P» 182 (This work is hereafter referred to by its title alone.) (3) 'Letter to Lord Byron', Letters from Iceland. (1937)t p. 208 (All quotations from Auden's works in book form are from the first London editions unless otherwise stated.) - 3 - of Greshain's School, Holt, "taking up some poet for a few weeks then dropping him for another, de la Mare, W.H.Davies, and even A.E., without finding what I really wanted.The discovery of Hardy in the summer of 1923 was crucial^/(its effect being overwhelming enough to be described later using the psychological term 1 transference'), and for more than a year afterwards he read 2 no one elsei . ( ') Auden identified his own world with Hardy's and valued Hardy's "hawk's vision", his ability to adopt a perspective which showed "the individual life related not only to the local social life of its time, but to the whole of human history.Even more important, however, was the practical model Hardy presented to the young poet in the variety of his verse forms which "help (4) the imitator to find out what he has to say"x ' and in his emphasis on direct colloquial diction, especially useful because (5) "his directness was in phrasing and syntax, not in imagery."x/ (1) 'A Literary Transference*, Purpose, XII, (1940), p.127 (2) Ibid., p.128 At about this time Auden was given de la Mare's anthology Come HitherI (1923) which, he later said, "more than any other book I have read before or since, taught me what poetry is" ; 'Jacob and the Angel1, The New Republic , CI, 1308 (1939), P.292 (3) 'A Literary Transference', p.132 (4) Ibid., p.134 (5) Loc.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Christopher Isherwood Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8pk0gr7 No online items Christopher Isherwood Papers Finding aid prepared by Sara S. Hodson with April Cunningham, Alison Dinicola, Gayle M. Richardson, Natalie Russell, Rebecca Tuttle, and Diann Benti. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org © October 2, 2000. Updated: January 12, 2007, April 14, 2010 and March 10, 2017 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Christopher Isherwood Papers CI 1-4758; FAC 1346-1397 1 Overview of the Collection Title: Christopher Isherwood Papers Dates (inclusive): 1864-2004 Bulk dates: 1925-1986 Collection Number: CI 1-4758; FAC 1346-1397 Creator: Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986. Extent: 6,261 pieces, plus ephemera. Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org Abstract: This collection contains the papers of British-American writer Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986), chiefly dating from the 1920s to the 1980s. Consisting of scripts, literary manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, photographs, ephemera, audiovisual material, and Isherwood’s library, the archive is an exceptionally rich resource for research on Isherwood, as well as W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender and others. Subjects documented in the collection include homosexuality and gay rights, pacifism, and Vedanta. Language: English. Access The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department, with two exceptions: • The series of Isherwood’s daily diaries, which are closed until January 1, 2030.
    [Show full text]
  • V. L. 0. Chittick ANGRY YOUNG POET of the THIRTIES
    V. L. 0. Chittick ANGRY YOUNG POET OF THE THIRTIES THE coMPLETION OF JoHN LEHMANN's autobiography with I Am My Brother (1960), begun with The Whispering Gallery (1955), brings back to mind, among a score of other largely forgotten matters, the fact that there were angry young poets in England long before those of last year-or was it year before last? The most outspoken of the much earlier dissident young verse writers were probably the three who made up the so-called "Oxford group", W. ·H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and C. Day Lewis. (Properly speaking they were never a group in col­ lege, though they knew one ariother as undergraduates and were interested in one another's work.) Whether taken together or singly, .they differed markedly from the young poets who have recently been given the label "angry". What these latter day "angries" are angry about is difficult to determine, unless indeed it is merely for the sake of being angry. Moreover, they seem to have nothing con­ structive to suggest in cure of whatever it is that disturbs them. In sharp contrast, those whom they have displaced (briefly) were angry about various conditions and situations that they were ready and eager to name specifically. And, as we shall see in a moment, they were prepared to do something about them. What the angry young poets of Lehmann's generation were angry about was the heritage of the first World War: the economic crisis, industrial collapse, chronic unemployment, and the increasing tP,reat of a second World War.
    [Show full text]
  • UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Romancing race and gender : intermarriage and the making of a 'modern subjectivity' in colonial Korea, 1910-1945 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9qf7j1gq Author Kim, Su Yun Publication Date 2009 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Romancing Race and Gender: Intermarriage and the Making of a ‘Modern Subjectivity’ in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Su Yun Kim Committee in charge: Professor Lisa Yoneyama, Chair Professor Takashi Fujitani Professor Jin-kyung Lee Professor Lisa Lowe Professor Yingjin Zhang 2009 Copyright Su Yun Kim, 2009 All rights reserved The Dissertation of Su Yun Kim is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2009 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page…………………………………………………………………...……… iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………... iv List of Figures ……………………………………………….……………………...……. v List of Tables …………………………………….……………….………………...…... vi Preface …………………………………………….…………………………..……….. vii Acknowledgements …………………………….……………………………..………. viii Vita ………………………………………..……………………………………….……. xi Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………. xii INTRODUCTION: Coupling Colonizer and Colonized……………….………….…….. 1 CHAPTER 1: Promotion of
    [Show full text]
  • An Index to Alan Ansen's the Table Talk of W. H. Auden Edited By
    An Index to Alan Ansen’s The Table Talk of W. H. Auden Edited by Nicholas Jenkins Index Compiled by Jacek Niecko A Supplement to The W. H. Auden Society Newsletter Number 20 • June 2000 Jacek Niecko is at work on a volume of conversations and interviews with W. H. Auden. Adams, Donald James 68, 115 Christmas Day 1941 letter to Aeschylus Chester Kallman 105 Oresteia 74 Collected Poems (1976) 103, 105, Akenside, Mark 53 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, Amiel, Henri-Frédéric 25 114, 116, 118 Andrewes, Lancelot 75 Collected Poetry 108 Meditations 75 Dark Valley, The 104 Sermons 75 Dog Beneath the Skin, The 51, 112 Aneirin Dyer’s Hand, The xiii, 100, 109, 111 Y Gododdin 108 “Easily, my dear, you move, easily Ann Arbor, Michigan 20, 107 your head” 106 Ansen, Alan ix-xiv, 103, 105, 112, 115, Enemies of a Bishop, The 22, 107 117 English Auden, The 103, 106, 108, Aquinas, Saint Thomas 33, 36 110, 112, 115, 118 Argo 54 Forewords and Afterwords 116 Aristophanes For the Time Being 3, 104 Birds, The 74 Fronny, The 51, 112 Clouds, The 74 “Greeks and Us, The” 116 Frogs, The 74 “Guilty Vicarage, The” 111 Aristotle 33, 75, 84 “Hammerfest” 106 Metaphysics 74 “Happy New Year, A” 118 Physics 74 “I Like It Cold” 115 Arnason Jon “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” xv, 70 Icelandic Legends 1 “In Search of Dracula” 106 Arnold, Matthew xv, 20, 107 “In Sickness and In Health” 106 Asquith, Herbert Henry 108 “In the Year of My Youth” 112 Athens, Greece 100 “Ironic Hero, The” 118 Atlantic 95 Journey to a War 105 Auden, Constance Rosalie Bicknell “Law Like Love” 70, 115 (Auden’s mother) 3, 104 Letter to Lord Byron 55, 103, 106, Auden, Wystan Hugh ix-xv, 19, 51, 99, 112 100, 103-119 “Malverns, The” 52, 112 “A.E.
    [Show full text]
  • CONTENTS Xiii Xxxi Paid on Both Sides
    CONTENTS PREFACE ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi INTRODUCTION xiii THE TEXT OF THIS EDITION xxxi PLAYS Paid on Both Sides [first version] (1928), by Auden 3 Paid on Both Sides [second version] (1928), by Auden 14 The Enemies of a Bishop (1929), by Auden and Isherwood 35 The Dance of Death (1933), by Auden 81 The Chase (1934), by Auden 109 The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), by Auden and Isherwood 189 The Ascent of F 6 (1936), by Auden and Isherwood 293 On the Frontier (1937-38), by Auden and Isherwood 357 DOCUMENTARY FILMS Coal Face (1935) 421 Night Mail (1935) 422 Negroes (1935) 424 Beside the Seaside (1935) 429 The Way to the Sea (1936) 430 The Londoners (1938?) 433 CABARET AND WIRELESS Alfred (1936) 437 Hadrian's Wall (7937) 441 APPENDICES I Auden and Isherwood's "Preliminary Statement" (1929) 459 1. The "Preliminary Statement" 459 2. Auden's "Suggestions for the Play" 462 VI CONTENTS II The Fronny: Fragments of a Lost Play (1930) 464 III Auden and the Group Theatre, by M J Sldnell 490 IV Auden and Theatre at the Downs School 503 V Two Reported Lectures 510 Poetry and FIlm (1936) 511 The Future of Enghsh Poetic Drama (1938) 513 fEXTUAL NOTES PaId on Both SIdes 525 The EnemIes of a BIshop 530 The Dance of Death 534 1 History, Editions, and Text 534 2 Auden's SynopsIs 542 The Chase 543 The Dog Beneath the Skm 553 1 History, Authorship, Texts, and EditIOns 553 2 Isherwood's Scenano for a New Version of The Chase 557 3 The Pubhshed Text and the Text Prepared for Production 566 4 The First (Pubhshed) Version of the Concludmg Scene 572 5 Isherwood's
    [Show full text]
  • Newsletter 25
    An Appeal for Expertise in Accountancy The Society would be very grateful to hear from any member living in the UK who has some knowledge of accountancy, and who would be willing to donate perhaps two hours of his or her time, once a year, in order to prepare a simple account of the Society's income and outgo. Ideally this would be someone living in or relatively near The London. If you fit this description, could you kindly get in touch with the Society at the postal address listed elsewhere on this page? W. H. Auden Society Memberships and Subscriptions Newsletter Annual memberships include a subscription to the Newsletter: Individual members £ 9 $15 ● Students £ 5 $8 Number 25 January 2005 Institutions £ 18 $30 New members of the Society and members wishing to renew should send sterling cheques or checks in US dollars payable to “The W. H. Auden Society” to Katherine Bucknell, 78 Clarendon Road, London W11 2HW. Receipts available on request. Payment may also be made by credit card through the Society’s web site at: http://audensociety.org/membership.html The W. H. Auden Society is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales as Charity No. 1104496. Submissions to the Newsletter may be sent in care of Katherine Bucknell, 78 Clarendon Road, London W11 2HW, or by e-mail to: [email protected] All writings by W. H. Auden in this issue are copyright 2005 by The Estate of W. H. Auden. 28 Foster’s recordings has been released in the Windyridge Variety series (www.musichallcds.com) and a brief excerpt may be heard at www.audensociety.org/vivianfoster.html on the Society’s website.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Poetry of the Dog Beneath the Skin
    GSJ: Volume 7, Issue 6, June 2019 ISSN 2320-9186 870 GSJ: Volume 7, Issue 6, June 2019, Online: ISSN 2320-9186 www.globalscientificjournal.com ON THE POETRY OF THE DOG BENEATH THE SKIN Associate Prof. Yahya Saleh Hasan Dahami English Department, Faculty of Science and Arts – Al Mandaq AL BAHA UNIVERSITY, Al Baha KSA [email protected] [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0195-7878 Abstract The Dog Beneath the Skin is the first play to be coauthored between Wystan Hugh Auden and Christopher Isherwood. It is a play written in verse, which creates a challenge of success for the dramatists for two reasons, the first is that it deals with verse, the second it is collaborative. The study through the collaborators, trying to show, to what extent, both achieved attainment in dealing with verse drama. This study also endeavors to trace the poetic features in The Dog Beneath the Skin and to attempt proving the capability and controllability in writing successful drama in verse through collaboration. This paper is done by using an analytic-critical method. It is an approach to a drama shared by both Auden and Isherwood. The study tersely traces the growth and elaboration of poetic drama until the twentieth century. It goes through the sort of collaboration between Auden and Isherwood. It is concluded by examining and analyzing, its central part, the poetic features and essentials in the play The Dog Beneath the Skin. Key Words: Auden and Isherwood, collaboration, literature, poetic drama, The Dog Beneath the Skin, twentieth century GSJ© 2019 www.globalscientificjournal.com GSJ: Volume 7, Issue 6, June 2019 ISSN 2320-9186 871 Introduction It is believed that poetic dramas possess the facility to break into the sources of sentiment and action of people all over the ages.
    [Show full text]
  • {PDF EPUB} the Six Queer Things by Christopher St. John Sprigg Christopher Caudwell
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Six Queer Things by Christopher St. John Sprigg Christopher Caudwell. Christopher Caudwell is the pseudonym of Christopher St. John Sprigg a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet. He was born into a Roman Catholic family, resident at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney. He was educated at the Benedictine Ealing Priory School, but left school at the age of 15 after his father, Stanhope Sprigg, lost his job as literary editor of the Daily Express. Caudwell moved with his father to Bradford and began work as a reporter for the Yorkshire Observer. He made his way to Marxism and set about rethinking everything in light of it, from poetry to philosophy to physics, later joining the Communist Party of Great Britain in Poplar, London. In December 1936 he drove an ambulance to Spain and joined the International Brigades there, training as a machine-gunner at Albacete before becoming a machine-gun instructor and group political delegate. He edited a wall newspaper. He was killed in action on 12 February 1937, the first day of the Battle of the Jarama Valley. His brother, Theodore, had attempted to have Caudwell recalled by the Communist Party of Great Britain by showing its General Secretary, Harry Pollitt, the proofs of Caudwell's book Illusion and Reality. Caudwell's Marxist works were published posthumously. The first was Illusion and Reality (1937), an analysis of poetry. Caudwell published widely, writing criticism, poetry, short stories and novels. Much of his work was published posthumously. Christopher St John Sprigg - Author. Death of an Airman is an enjoyable and unorthodox whodunit from a writer whose short life was as remarkable as that of any of his fictional creations.
    [Show full text]
  • Sharpe, Tony, 1952– Editor of Compilation
    more information - www.cambridge.org/9780521196574 W. H. AUDen IN COnteXT W. H. Auden is a giant of twentieth-century English poetry whose writings demonstrate a sustained engagement with the times in which he lived. But how did the century’s shifting cultural terrain affect him and his work? Written by distinguished poets and schol- ars, these brief but authoritative essays offer a varied set of coor- dinates by which to chart Auden’s continuously evolving career, examining key aspects of his environmental, cultural, political, and creative contexts. Reaching beyond mere biography, these essays present Auden as the product of ongoing negotiations between him- self, his time, and posterity, exploring the enduring power of his poetry to unsettle and provoke. The collection will prove valuable for scholars, researchers, and students of English literature, cultural studies, and creative writing. Tony Sharpe is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. He is the author of critically acclaimed books on W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, and Wallace Stevens. His essays on modernist writing and poetry have appeared in journals such as Critical Survey and Literature and Theology, as well as in various edited collections. W. H. AUDen IN COnteXT edited by TONY SharPE Lancaster University cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521196574 © Cambridge University Press 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
    [Show full text]
  • Newsletter 32
    The W. H. Auden Society Newsletter Number 32 ● July 2009 Memberships and Subscriptions Annual memberships include a subscription to the Newsletter: Contents Individual members £9 $15 Katherine Bucknell: Edward Upward (1903-2009) 5 Students £5 $8 Nicholas Jenkins: Institutions and paper copies £18 $30 Lost and Found . and Offered for Sale 14 Hugh Wright: W. H. Auden and the Grasshopper of 1955 16 New members of the Society and members wishing to renew should David Collard: either ( a) pay online with any currency by following the link at A New DVD in the G.P.O. Film Collection 18 http://audensociety.org/membership.html Recent and Forthcoming Books and Events 24 or ( b) use postal mail to send sterling (not dollar!) cheques payable to “The W. H. Auden Society” to Katherine Bucknell, Memberships and Subscriptions 26 78 Clarendon Road, London W11 2HW, Receipts available on request. A Note to Members The W. H. Auden Society is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales as Charity No. 1104496. The Society’s membership fees no longer cover the costs of printing and mailing the Newsletter . The Newsletter will continue to appear, but The Newsletter is edited by Farnoosh Fathi. Submissions this number will be the last to be distributed on paper to all members. may be made by post to: The W. H. Auden Society, Future issues of the Newsletter will be posted in electronic form on the 78 Clarendon Road, London W11 2HW; or by Society’s web site, and a password that gives access to the Newsletter e-mail to: [email protected] will be made available to members.
    [Show full text]
  • Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival 2008 Program
    July 19 – September 19, 2014 World-class theatre. Right next door. Henry IV • The Merry Wives of Windsor • ShakeScenes • Much Ado About Nothing program_cover_art2014.indd 1 6/30/14 1:36 PM Laura & Jack B. Smith, Jr. are proud sponsors of NOTRE DAME SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Giving Back to the Community TABLE OF CONTENTS 2–4 About Shakespeare at Notre Dame and the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival 5 A Note from the Ryan Producing Artistic Director 6 Festival Events and Ticket Information 8–10 Welcome to the 2014 Season 12–15 Professional Company: HENRY IV 17–19 Young Company: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR 21–22 ShakeScenes 25–26 Actors From The London Stage: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 29–39 Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival Cast and Company Profiles 40 Sponsors, Endowments, and Benefactors INSIDE BACK COVER Acknowledgments Festival Production Photographer — Peter Ringenberg LEFT: Robert Jenista, Tim Hanson, Ross Henry, and Kyle CENTER: Young Company Director West Hyler and RIGHT: Cheryl Turski instructs the Young Company in a Techentin work on the HENRY IV set. Stage Manager Nellie Petlick lead a rehearsal of THE movement class. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. SHAKESPEARE AT NOTRE DAME Dear Friends: Dear Friends: Here we are again: summer at Notre Welcome to the 2014 season of the Dame and that means the Notre Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. It’s Dame Shakespeare Festival. a year of celebrations for all things Shakespeare here on campus. 2014 As always, there are the rich and var- marks not only Shakespeare’s 450th ied delights of local groups perform- birthday, but also the 150th anni- ing in ShakeScenes.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Auden Group”
    1 Subject: ENGLISH Class: B.A. Part 1 English Hons., Paper-1, Group B Topic: THE AUDEN GROUP Lecture No: 20 By: Prof. Sunita Sinha Head, Department of English Women’s College Samastipur L.N.M.U., Darbhanga Email: [email protected] Website: www.sunitasinha.com Mob No: 9934917117 “THE AUDEN GROUP” INTRODUCTION • The Auden Group or the Auden Generation is a group of British and Irish writers active in the 1930s that included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Cecil Day Lewis, Louis MacNeice and Christopher Isherwood. • The Auden Group is also sometimes referred to as the Nineteen Thirties Poets or The Oxford Poets who represented a new, more experimental literary style. • All the poets knew one another, and most had been educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, all sharing vaguely left-wing viewpoints. The writers associated with the grouping—W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Cecil Day- 2 Lewis, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood never gathered together in the same room, nor shared any coherent poetic or literary values. • Rather, the poets connected individually, particularly through Auden, who collaborated several times with both Isherwood and MacNeice, and wrote with Day-Lewis an introduction to the annual Oxford Poetry. • In the public mind, the individuals continued to be linked, with poet Roy Campbell referring to “MacSpaunday” in his 1946 work, Talking Bronco, a word created from the names of MacNeice (Mac), Spender (sp), Auden (au- n), and Day-Lewis (day). • The English Poetry of 1930s is primarily recognized as the poetry of leftist philosophy. The poets during this period were highly influenced by the philosophy of Karl Marx and his followers.
    [Show full text]