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W. H. Auden

だぶりゅー・えいち・おーでん

W. H. Auden

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1907-02-21 （York, Yorkshire, England）
Died
1973-09-29 （Vienna, Austria） age 66
Nationality
United Kingdom, United States
Languages
English
Religion
Church of England / Episcopal (Anglo‑Catholic influence)
Residence History
York (birthplace) → Solihull / Birmingham area (grew up) → Various places in England (education and early career) → Berlin (1928–1929) → Brooklyn / Manhattan, New York (from 1939; winters) → Ischia, Italy (summer residence, 1948–1957) → Kirchstetten, Austria (summer residence) → Oxford (late life, cottage offered 1972)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Playwright, Essayist/Critic, Librettist, Teacher/Professor, Editor
Active Years
1922-1973
Influenced By
T. S. Eliot, Dante, William Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy, J. R. R. Tolkien (introduction to Old English and saga material), Søren Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr (religious and ethical thought)
Influenced
Joseph Brodsky, John Ashbery, James Merrill, Anthony Hecht, Maxine Kumin
Nominations
Recommended candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1963), Recommended candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1964, 1965)

Education

Christ Church, Oxford
Scholarship in Biology → switched to English / English
Degree: MA (Oxon) / BA (third-class) 相当
Period: 1925–1928
Year of Graduation: 1928
Country: United Kingdom
Originally held a scholarship in biology, switched to English; attended lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1948
Work: The Age of Anxiety
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
National Book Award for Poetry
1956
Work: The Shield of Achilles
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: 受賞
Feltrinelli Prize (Premio Feltrinelli)
1957
Organization: Accademia Nazionale (Feltrinelli prize committee)
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
1942
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞（取得したが一部は使用せず）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Poems

1930 Poetry collection

Early collection including school‑age poems and short dramatic pieces; brought Auden to wide public attention.

LonelinessLoveFamilial / generational influence

Another Time

1940 Poetry collection

Collection containing poems such as 'Funeral Blues'; gathers works from the late 1930s and early American period.

Loss in lovePolitics and the individual
Adaptations
  • [Film (excerpt reading)] Funeral Blues reading in Four Weddings and a Funeral / Mike Newell (1994)
Translations
  • Another Time (selected poems translated into Japanese)

The Age of Anxiety

1947 Long poem / baroque eclogue

Long poem dealing with postwar 'anxiety'; won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948.

Modern anxietyIndividual and society
Adaptations
  • [Symphony (musical adaptation)] Leonard Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 'The Age of Anxiety' / Leonard Bernstein (作曲) (1949)
Translations
  • The Age of Anxiety (Japanese translations exist)

The Shield of Achilles

1955 Poetry collection

Contains 'Horae Canonicae' and poems on nature and history; prominent mid‑period collection, National Book Award winner (1956).

History and timeReligious and ethical reflectionNature

About the House

1965 Poetry collection

Includes the sequence 'Thanksgiving for a Habitat' about his house in Kirchstetten, Austria.

Habitat and dwellingEveryday lifeContinuity with nature

Epistle to a Godson

1972 Poetry collection (late works)

Late collection containing reflective poems on language, aging, and religious themes.

AgingLanguage and ethicsReligious reflection

Bibliography

  • Poems (1930)
  • The Orators (1932)
  • Letters from Iceland (1937)
  • Another Time (1940)
  • The Age of Anxiety (1947)
  • The Shield of Achilles (1955)
  • About the House (1965)
  • Epistle to a Godson (1972)
  • Thank You, Fog (posthumous, 1974)

Adaptations

  • Funeral Blues featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), increasing Auden's public profile
  • Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress (libretto collaboration)
  • Leonard Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 'The Age of Anxiety' (musical adaptation)

Translations by Author

  • Translation of the Elder Edda (1969)

Translations of Works

  • The Age of Anxiety (Japanese translations exist)
  • Poems such as 'Funeral Blues' translated into many languages

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Wide formal range (lyric, long poems, baroque eclogue)Technical and stylistic virtuosityFrequent use of irony and satiric toneLater years: syllabic verse and short forms (haiku, tanka)
Recurring Motifs
Love and lossPolitics and the public sphereReligious and ethical questionsLandscape (Pennines, Iceland)Time and historyHabitat and dwelling

Legacy

Recognized as one of the leading English‑language poets of the 20th century. His work ranges from 1930s political verse to religious and reflective late poems. Public recognition grew further after media exposure (e.g. 'Funeral Blues' in film); he retains both scholarly and popular influence.

Museums

  • Auden's house in Kirchstetten (study open by request) Kirchstetten, Austria
  • Westminster Abbey (memorial stone) London, UK Opened in 1974

Academic Societies

  • W. H. Auden Society

Archives

  • British Library (holds Auden material)
  • Auden Musulin Papers: Digital edition (Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities)

In Popular Culture

  • Popularity increased after 'Funeral Blues' was read in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).
  • 'September 1, 1939' was widely circulated and broadcast after the September 11 attacks.

Quotes

  • If equal affection cannot be / Let the more loving one be me.
    Source: From the poem 'The More Loving One'

Trivia

  • Married Erika Mann in 1935 in a marriage of convenience so she could avoid losing German citizenship.
  • Naturalized U.S. citizen in 1946 while retaining British citizenship.
  • Died suddenly of heart failure in Vienna in 1973 shortly after giving a reading.