Auden was born in 1907 and had his first poem published in a collection called Public School Verse when he was only 17. He entered Oxford the following year and became friends with Cecil Day-Lewis, Christopher Asherwood and others who would contribute much to England's cultural life of the mid-century. Auden himself became a teacher but was always writing (and successfully publishing) poetry.
Like many intellectuals of the 1930's, Auden was enamored with leftist rhetoric and ideals. His poetry became quite political and he even went to Spain, intending to drive an ambulance during the Spanish Civil War. However, the sacking of Roman Catholic churches by Communists appalled him and the bloom fell off the socialist flower, never to return. He returned first to England and eventually to the U.S. where his heart moved steadily towards Christianity.
Among his leading works of poetry in the years to come were Another Time (1940), The Double Man (1941) and The Age of Anxiety (1947) which explored human isolation and spiritual emptiness in the modern city. For that poem, Auden won the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1956, he returned to live in England after being given a professorship of poetry at Oxford. He stayed at Oxford until 1960 and died in Austria in 1973.
I print below a sampling of Auden's verse that I particularly like.
The Unknown Citizen
by W. H. Auden
(To JS/07/M/378/ This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
by W. H. Auden
(To JS/07/M/378/ This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
