‘The Orators'

If ‘Poems’ had created interest and enthusiasm, ‘The Orators’ generated still fiercer excitement and perplexity. The American poet John Berryman’s testimony that ‘When I flew through “The Orators” first / I felt outstretched…’ (‘Shirley & Auden’, in ‘Love & Fame’, London: Faber & Faber, 1971) is typical of an extremely wide response.