Happy Deathday Mr. Auden!

On September 29th in 1973, Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.H. Auden died of heart failure at the age of 66.

Our favorite work by Auden is undoubtedly his most popular, The Age of Anxiety, for which he won the Pulitzer in 1948. What truly makes this six part poem so stirring is the actual anxiety it provokes when reading it! Read it… you’ll see what we mean.

In addition, we can pull a few other favorites from his plethora of poems. The following collections are constantly referenced by all of us here at Dead Writers Club on a nearly daily basis! The Dog Beneath the Skin, Look, Stranger!, The Sea and the Mirror, Thank You, Fog and The Dance of Death.

Auden was clearly influenced by Blake, Yeats and Dickinson. His work stands out to us as some of the most evocative poetry of our time. He had a gift for writing poetry in virtually every verse form and often alluded to Classic Literature as well as popular culture.

During his lifetime, Auden wrote approximately four hundred poems and was the author of more than four hundred essays and reviews in many subject areas… If that is not awe-inspiring, we do not know what is! Our humble request of our readers today is simple… start writing… stop reading this blog and go write!

Write on in peace, Mr. Auden!