“A Way of Happening, a Mouth”

Chapter 6 examines Auden’s innovative efforts to integrate art and ethics as well as his major poetic strategies, arguing that his poetic achievements of this period owe as much to ethical consciousness as to poetic ingenuity. Poems discussed include “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” (1939) from Another Time and “New Year Letter” (1940) from New Year Letter.