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🗓️ 9 June 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Today poem is by Wystan Hugh Auden (/ˈwɪstən ˈhjuː ˈɔːdən/; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973[1]), a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form, and content. Some of his best known poems are about love, such as "Funeral Blues"; on political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles"; on cultural and psychological themes, such as The Age of Anxiety; and on religious themes such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae".[2][3][4]
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0:00.0 | Hey everyone, David Kern here. I just wanted to let you know that this episode of The Daily Poem is sponsored by an exciting new book from the Circe Press. |
0:07.9 | It's called Legends of the Roundtable. If you love Arthuriana, you know how hard it can be to find accessible, child-friendly collections of your favorite tales. |
0:16.7 | A few years ago, Circe set out to make just such a collection so you don't have to. |
0:21.6 | They took the most loved tales in the most beautiful language and added discussion questions to enable read-alouds or personal contemplation. |
0:29.6 | Grab your copy of this beautiful collection of Arthurian tales for all ages to bring chivalry, valor, and feasting into your home this summer. |
0:38.7 | Learn more about it on their website, surcey institute.org slash books, or by clicking the link in the show notes. And with that, |
0:45.2 | here's today's episode. Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. I'm David |
0:51.3 | Kern, and today is Friday, June 9th, 2003. Today's poem is by an English poet, |
1:00.3 | a English-American poet, I suppose, W. H. Aoudan, who lived from February of 1907 until September |
1:07.0 | of 1973. He is best known for poems like September 1st, 1939, and the Shield of Achilles, |
1:14.9 | as well as his longer poems, almost book length, the age of anxiety, and for the time being. |
1:21.4 | Adon is certainly one of the most important of the 20th century poets. In 1947, he won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for the age of anxiety, |
1:31.2 | and he was a professor of Oxford, a poetry at Oxford, for five years as well. And he became very influential. |
1:39.8 | He also, I think, bridges a gap between early 20th century poetry and the poetry that came to define the mid-century and on. |
1:49.7 | And although Wikipedia suggests that he is perhaps a lesser figure than, say, Yates and Elliot, |
1:54.2 | I'm quite fond of his work and think he is worthy of being read and read some more. |
2:00.7 | So I'm going to do that. Today's poem is |
2:02.7 | going to be called Their Lonely Betters. This is a great summer poem. So I'm going to read it once, |
2:10.4 | share a few comments, and then read it again. Here is Their Lonely Betters by W. H. Auden. |
2:18.5 | As I listened from a beach chair in the shade |
2:21.1 | to all the noises that my garden made, |
2:23.5 | it seemed to me only proper that words should be withheld |
... |
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