Table Of Content

NEW 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