The second of two volumes of the eagerly anticipated first complete
edition of Auden's poems--including some that have never been published
before
W. H. Auden (1907-1973) is one of the greatest poets of the twentieth
century, and his reputation has only grown since his death. Published on
the hundredth anniversary of the year in which he began to write poetry,
this is the second volume of the first complete edition of Auden's
poems. Edited, introduced, and annotated by renowned Auden scholar
Edward Mendelson, this definitive edition includes all the poems Auden
wrote for publication, in their original texts, and all his later
revised versions, as well as poems and songs he never published, some of
them printed here for the first time.
This volume follows Auden as a mature artist, containing all the poems
that he published or submitted for publication from 1940 until his death
in 1973, at age sixty-six. This includes all his poetry collections from
this period, from The Double Man (1941) through Epistle to a Godson
(1972). The volume also features an edited version of his incomplete,
posthumous book Thank You, Fog, as well as his self-designated
"posthumous" poems.
The main text presents the poems in their original published versions.
The notes include the extensive revisions that he made to his poems over
the course of his career, and provide explanations of obscure
references.
The first volume of this edition, Poems, Volume I: 1927-1939, is also
available.
