WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN Flashcards
Identify the influences on Auden’s work
Auden is influenced by
- MARX: by the belief that citizens duty is to ENGAGE with HISTORY and to QUESTION the social and political climate in which they lived.
— FREUD: by the use of IMAGERY, and the TERMINOLOGY of clinical psychoanalysis
— the later works are mor religious and there is SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE
Provide examples of his social and political commitment
He is concerned with MORAL issues and engages with POLITICAL and SOCIAL context of the age.
Auden believed they the poet’s role is to ACT LIKE A PUBLIC VOICE.
They must call for FREEDOM against tyranny and EXPRESS the ANXIETIES of contemporary left-wing intellectuals.
Highlight the change brought about by his move to America
In 1939 he settled in USA.
His poetry became ANTI-IDEOLOGICAL and ANTI POLITICAL.
It is a new phase of his poetry.
Describe the main features of his style
He is ANTI-ROMANTICAL because of his analytical approach.
His poetry is invented and adaptable to various context and moods.
He uses epigrammatic but also very long lines and words of scientific knowledge.
He writes songs, ballads, blues and lullabies.
