Auden

Question 1

1. Auden’s biography

Answer 1

-born in York in 1907

-interested in science, myths, legends and psychology.

-attended Oxford for english =) became the leader of the “Oxford poets”

-committed to social issues (supported jews + drove ambulance in Spanish Civil war etc)

-Married Erika Mann, daughter of Thomas mann=) marriage of convenience to give her Brittish citizenship and let her escape from Nazi Germany

-He was kinda gay

-So went to slay in the US and started teaching

-He still was a supporter fo social issues, but he became anti-political and anti-ideological

Question 2

2. What are the influences affecting Auden’s work?

Answer 2

-Marx (palese) = citizen had to question the political and social climate they lived in

-beginning of career also influenced by Freud =first to use imagery and terminology of clinical psychoanalysis

-Later works spiritual and religious influences

Question 3

3. Provide examples of his social and political commitment.

Answer 3

• he is concerned with moral issues and engages with political and social context of his time

-for him the poet’s task was= to act as a public voice , to speak against tyranny and to express the anxieties of the left-wing intellectuals

-analytic approach brought order in a economically depressed society.

Question 4

4. Highlight the change brought about by his move to America

Answer 4

-new beginning
-reconversion to christianity influenced ethical concerns
- mixture of styles
-he thought a lot maybe a tad too much lol

Question 5

5. His style

Answer 5

-anti romantic cuz he is very ANALYTICAL
-inventive and adaptive poetry + scientific knowledge
-wrote different style, paragraphs, ballads, blues, lullabies
-aim was to blend the intellectual with the popular =) wanted to create a poetry of a “genuine community” so he called it lol