3 Review(s)

W. H. Auden (1907-1973), the son of a York doctor, was educated at Gresham's school, Holt and Oxford. He was accepted as a leading poet whose influence was felt in contemporary verses. It has been said that he merely followed the fashion; rather, in his day he set the fashion. He came under the influence of Hopkins and Eliot and like the latter, he was deeply aware of the hollowness of a disintegrating civilisation during 'A time of crisis and dismay'. Auden found his solution to the world's problems in left-wing political ideologies.