By Dr Oliver Tearle ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ by W. H. Auden (1907-73) was written in 1939, following the death of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats in January of that year.
Tag: W. H. Auden
A Short Analysis of W. H. Auden’s ‘September 1, 1939’
By Dr Oliver Tearle ‘September 1, 1939’ is one of W. H. Auden’s most famous poems, although Auden (1907-73) later disowned the poem and banned it from appearing in collected editions of his work. As the poem’s title indicates, ‘September 1, 1939’ was written in early September 1939 – and although […]
A Short Analysis of W. H. Auden’s ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’
By Dr Oliver Tearle W. H. Auden wrote ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ in December 1938, while he was staying in Brussels with his friend Christopher Isherwood. The museum and art gallery mentioned in the poem’s title, ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’, is the Brussels art gallery, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de […]
A Short Analysis of W. H. Auden’s ‘Refugee Blues’
By Dr Oliver Tearle ‘Refugee Blues’ is the title commonly given to the first song in W. H. Auden’s ‘Ten Songs’. The poem was completed in March 1939, while Auden was living in New York. The fact that ‘Refugee Blues’ was part of a cycle titled ‘Ten Songs’ prepares us […]
A Short Analysis of W. H. Auden’s ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’
By Dr Oliver Tearle ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ is one of Auden’s short masterpieces. In just six lines, W. H. Auden (1907-73) manages to say so much about the nature of tyranny. You can read ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ here, before proceeding to our short analysis of this powerful poem that […]