Selected Poems of W. H. Auden (Vintage International)

arrived as stated

Love it.

If you like Auden's work, you'll likely rate this book very highly - expanded collection, intro, etc. and service was perfect.If you're otherwise new to Auden, i suspect rating wont be as high. Auden was very talented and versatile but also very much contemporary, rooted in the events of his time. Many poems have political, current events and WW2 background that might be difficult for current readers to connect with. They tend to be structured and formal carrying 19th century poetic conventions. For academic purposes, including Auden is a must; for recreational reading not sure this will meet the expectation.

Perhaps the best collection of WH Auden poems. Well organized!

I began reading this collection of Auden's poetry over two years ago. I very much wanted to like it, partly because of Auden's literary stature, and, more significantly, because Auden is the only poet I remember my father singling out to me: he gave me a copy of the poem by Auden that begins, "Lay your sleeping head, my love," a poem that I love because of that memory. Alas, I did not like most of the poems in this book. Auden often has turns of phrase that I find beautiful, but there were few poems here that I liked in their entirety. Out of 120 poems, I marked ten that I liked, only two of which I marked as greatly liking. (For the curious, those are the poem that my father gave to me, and "The Shield of Achilles.") Auden is an important and influential poet, but for the most part his poetry doesn't appeal to me, barbarian that I am.