Auden, W. H. - Patrick Deane (essay date Summer 1991)
Patrick Deane (essay date Summer 1991)
SOURCE: "'Within a Field That Never Closes': The Reader in W. H. Auden's 'New Year Letter,'" in Contemporary Literature, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, Summer, 1991, pp. 171-93.
[In the following essay, Deane explores Auden's theoretical assumptions, linguistic techniques, and open-ended relationship with the reader in "New Year Letter."]
In October 1941, the pages of Scrutiny registered the appearance of W. H. Auden's New Year Letter with characteristic acerbity. The long poem from which the volume as a whole took its title came in for particular excoriation, Auden's "wit" being described, somewhat condescendingly, as the sort of thing one might expect from "a theological student at a Scottish university." The conclusion of the reviewer. Raymond Winkler, was that "another edition of this book omitting the 'Letter' and the notes [to it] would detract less from Mr. Auden's deserved reputation." But even...
[The entire page is 9193 words long]
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