My favorite poem. For me this poem traces his own history from public to personal life, from a leftist political icon to a poet of human realities. It's enormously wise and funny, self-deprecating and brave, I think. It's brilliant the way the antecedent of 'we' grows more and more narrow across the poem, until at the end (I imagine) he is just talking to Christopher Isherwood. I went to school at IU, where all the buildings are limestone, and used to imagine he wrote the poem with Bloomington in mind. Someday I hope to get to Ischia, and see the actual place that inspired the work.
+khdcom Auden is a longtime favorite, and this poem is among my favorites. It truly is brilliant how he weaves it all together, reconciling scholarly talk ("voluble discourse") with common talk ("a clever line").
By all means go to Ischia, but it has nothing to do with limestone. It is a volcanic formation. Insofar as he was thinking of anywhere in particular (and he probably was), it's more likely to have been the Pennines, which he loved.
the published version reads: 'What could be more like Mother or a fitter background For her son, the flirtatious male who lounges Against a rock in the sunlight, never doubting That for all his faults he is loved' so the poet adding a mischievous extra phrase in this reading...
It gave me a shock. I've known this poem by heart for 50 years. And why "a dildo" isn't that an artificial penis? Why is this flirtatious male flaunting a rubber willy?
The version I have is from The Oxford Book of American Poetry and it reads the same way that he says it here. I never would've known that there was another version of this poem if I hadn't read these comments.
I don't think that he wanders off the main theme. For me this poem is Auden's equivalent, in a very general way, to Yeats' Byzantium poems - its to do with life , death, and the life to come. But I do grant that where Yeats is compact and cryptic, Auden is garrulous, and takes in this case, the listener, through and extended meditation. I feel I know, much more clearly how Auden got to his conclusion.
He's brilliant.
Awesome thanks
Gem of a poem!
My favorite poem. For me this poem traces his own history from public to personal life, from a leftist political icon to a poet of human realities. It's enormously wise and funny, self-deprecating and brave, I think. It's brilliant the way the antecedent of 'we' grows more and more narrow across the poem, until at the end (I imagine) he is just talking to Christopher Isherwood.
I went to school at IU, where all the buildings are limestone, and used to imagine he wrote the poem with Bloomington in mind. Someday I hope to get to Ischia, and see the actual place that inspired the work.
+khdcom Auden is a longtime favorite, and this poem is among my favorites. It truly is brilliant how he weaves it all together, reconciling scholarly talk ("voluble discourse") with common talk ("a clever line").
By all means go to Ischia, but it has nothing to do with limestone. It is a volcanic formation. Insofar as he was thinking of anywhere in particular (and he probably was), it's more likely to have been the Pennines, which he loved.
thank you for posting
"From weathered outcrop to hilltop temple": euphonic!
beautiful!
the published version reads:
'What could be more like Mother or a fitter background
For her son, the flirtatious male who lounges
Against a rock in the sunlight, never doubting
That for all his faults he is loved'
so the poet adding a mischievous extra phrase in this reading...
It gave me a shock. I've known this poem by heart for 50 years. And why "a dildo" isn't that an artificial penis? Why is this flirtatious male flaunting a rubber willy?
The version I have is from The Oxford Book of American Poetry and it reads the same way that he says it here. I never would've known that there was another version of this poem if I hadn't read these comments.
It was first published in 1948, then revised for publication in 1958. I think this is the earlier recension.
here on Ischia, he captures the languid, sure way of the Ischitani
...he wanders off the main theme a bit, don't he.
+Tommy C No, the incredible thing is it all fits together, if you've got the key...
+khdcom ;-)
I don't think that he wanders off the main theme. For me this poem is Auden's equivalent, in a very general way, to Yeats' Byzantium poems - its to do with life , death, and the life to come. But I do grant that where Yeats is compact and cryptic, Auden is garrulous, and takes in this case, the listener, through and extended meditation. I feel I know, much more clearly how Auden got to his conclusion.