ABSTRACT
Simplicity, it will be recalled, was habitually Mr. Auden’s strength and virtue. He was not, in fact, generally classed as one of the ‘simple’ poets: in verse, complexity of attitude towards a given situation on the one hand, and simplicity of attitude towards a complex situation on the other, have both given rise to accusations of obscurity. Mr. Auden’s method was ordinarily the second of these, and by sticking firmly to a handful of easily-grasped principles, he steered his verses through the intricacies of contemporary existence and produced some interesting patterns of experience. The resultant scope constituted the virtue; the fact that he felt no compulsion to modify his attitudes under the stress of experience enabled him to explore a wide field of phenomena without confusion. The weakness of the plays sprang from the same source – this insistent singularity of outlook and intention was fundamentally undramatic: the apparent interplay of personality was soon revealed as the unsubtle clash of propaganda and counter-propaganda.
