ABSTRACT
Mr. Auden has always been fluent, he has always been ready to turn out a piece of slack, gossipy verse for a social or political occasion, and he has always shown a remarkable capacity for picking up odds and ends of other people’s styles. The present volume is, on the whole, trivial or skilfully imitative, although it opens with a very effective dedicatory poem in Mr. Auden’s most characteristic Blake-ish manner: Every eye must weep alone Till I Will be overthrown - But I Will can be removed Not having sense enough To guard against I Know, But I Will can be removed. [EA, 456]
