Books: Poets' Account

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Englishman Auden, however, does not allow such a lump of purely democratic emotion to stick in his throat for long. He clears it out with an elaborate, witty, rhymed, five-part letter to hyper-aristocratic English Poet Lord Byron. In this sophisticated, not entirely mock-serious composition, Poet Auden confides his thoughts about English literature in general, about his own life and times in particular, points a pretty straight finger at the hot spot on which up-to-the-minute literates fry perforce. His view of his fellow poets is neither encouraging nor hopeless : . . . many are in tears:

Some have retired to bed and locked the door;

And some swing madly from the chandeliers;

Some have passed out entirely in the rears;

Some have been sick in corners; the sobering few

Are trying hard to think of something new.

In furtherance of "something new" Poets Auden and MacNeice wind up their book by collaborating on a unique Last Will and Testament in which they tell their contemporaries what they think of them by means of appropriate bequests. To the Church of England they leave, among other things, "the Chief Scout's horn, a secondhand curate's font;" to bicycle, the and a English portable Public Schools, "mens sana qui mal y pense;" to Sir string;" to Robert square-headed Baden-Powell, pegs "a living piece in of the world's round holes, "our cheerfulness."

We leave our age the quite considerable spark

Of private love and goodness which never leaves

An age, however awful, in the utter dark.

We leave the unconceived and unborn lives

A closer approximation to real happiness

Than has been reached by us, our neighbours or their wives.

Without announcing the bequest, Letters from Iceland will leave to readers a closer understanding of real poets than could be reached by means of confessions, revelations, or "whole truths."

Fortnight ago Poet Auden, escorted by Poet Laureate John Masefield, was presented to King George VI, to receive The King's Gold Medal. This award to young poets, instituted three years ago by George V, first given to conservative, conventional Poet Laurence Whistler, was withheld last year.