The best Auden poems

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) wrote a great deal of poetry, with many of his best-loved poems being written in the 1930s. In this post, we’ve taken on the difficult task of finding the ten greatest Auden poems – difficult because, although certain poems naturally rise to the surface and proclaim their greatness, there are quite a few of those. Here’s our top ten. Are there any classic poems by Auden that we’ve left off the list? Click on the title of each poem to read it.

‘Stop all the clocks’. Also known as ‘Funeral Blues’, this poem, one of Auden’s ‘Twelve Songs’ originally published in 1936, needs no introduction, perhaps. Since it was recited in the funeral in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, it achieved worldwide fame and brought Auden’s poetry to a whole new audience.

Pangaea Poetry, an international poetry organisation, are looking for poets from across the world to take part in their 3rd annual poetry slam in July.
The competition, supported by Arts Council England, was created to celebrate poetry and encourage artists to share their work from all corners of the globe.
Across the month of July anyone looking to take part can upload a video to YouTube and submit it online to the slam for four weekly rounds.
The quality of your video doesn’t matter, all that matters are your words and they don’t even have to be in English. You are welcome to submit in any language you like, and if you would like a transcript in English, Pangaea can provide this.

At the end of the month, five poets will receive £300 and support from Pangaea to look at how they can take their poetry forward.
There are two…

Just. One. Book.

I live in a town of 1200 people in the Northern Sierra Nevada –where it meets the Cascade Range near Mt. Lassen National Park and about two hours drive northwest of Reno, NV.  Two hundred of that population is students. Over the years as the population dwindled after mines closed, then mills–nothing except tourism and retirement have emerged as ‘industries.’ Many businesses have closed down and with it many things we take for granted—like libraries.

The local junior/senior high school has not been able to purchase new books since the 90s. Some of the “check outs” for old books are in the 1980s. There are no books by people of color in the library. Hardly any books by women are in the few book cases except your standard Austen and Lee. It’s an uninviting place. There hasn’t been a librarian for nearly a decade. And volunteers weren’t allowed. The…