Making of the Auden canon (Minnesota Archive Editions)

Making of the Auden canon was first published in 1957. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.No poet writing in English is more representative of the intellectual trends of the thirties and forties than W. H. Auden. British born Oxford educated American by naturalization and now returned to Oxford to occupy the chair of poetry he is widely regarded as the spiritual guide and keeper of the conscience of the age at the same time that he exemplifies the gradual passage from ideological left to right so characteristic of the period. This study of Audens poetry and revisions has far-reaching implications for an understanding not only of Audens own writing but that of his contemporaries as well.Considering that 1945 Collected Poetry as the Auden canon or authorized version of the poems Mr. Beach examines the process by which Auden selected poems to be admitted to the canon. He shows that the poet eliminated many that were at odds with his later style and thought discreetly revised others to bring them into line and at the same time left unaltered some of the pieces from his unregenerate days. Audens system of selection and revision reflects the winding course of his thought and by tracing this course Mr. Beach endeavors to penetrate the poets diverse masks in an effort to get at the identity of t he man himself.