“And the angel will not come”: W. H. Auden and the paradox of poetic language

• Baldwin Lind, Paula ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Los Andes

     Universidad de Los Andes

     Colombia

     
• Localización: Nueva Revista del Pacífico, ISSN-e 0719-5176, ISSN 0716-6346, Nº. 73, 2020, págs. 186-209
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.4067/s0719-51762020000200186
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    El objetivo de este artículo es analizar las nociones de poesía y de lenguaje poético que propone W. H. Auden (1907-1973) desde su perspectiva de crisis de la cultura moderna, en una selección de ensayos y poemas, con especial énfasis en “Autumn Song” (1936). En esta obra, el ángel que no llega a la Tierra, la parálisis de los seres vivos y el silencio dominante muestran las limitaciones del lenguaje humano al intentar dar cuenta de la realidad y de las experiencias personales. Aunque la figura del espíritu celeste, la estación de otoño en que se enmarca el poema y las imágenes de desencanto resultan claves para su interpretación, es fundamental considerar las ideas religiosas y filosóficas que Auden desarrolló durante su carrera, las que permiten comprender mejor su poética. Paradójicamente, a la vez que el poeta angloamericano reconoce la limitación de las palabras, encuentra en el lenguaje poético un camino posible para conocer y explorar lo que significa ser humano con todo su misterio.

  • English

    The aim of this article is to analyze the notions of poetry and poetic language proposed by W. H. Auden (1907-1973) from his perspective of crisis of modern culture, in a selection of essays and poems, with special emphasis on “Autumn Song” (1936). In this work, the angel who does not arrive to the Earth, the paralysis of living creatures and the dominant silence show the limitations of human language when trying to account for reality and personal experiences. Although the figure of the celestial spirit, the autumn season in which the poem is framed and the images of disenchantment are key to its interpretation, it is essential to consider the religious and philosophical ideas that Auden developed during his career, which allow us to better understand his poetics. Paradoxically, at the same time that the Anglo-American poet acknowledges the limitation of words, he finds in poetic language a possible way to know and explore what it means to be human with all the mystery of it.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer. Dialectics of Enlightment. Trans. John Cumming. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print. Auden, W. H. “A Preface...
  • Auden, W. H. “Autumn Song.” W. H. Auden: Collected Poems. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Revised edition. London: Faber & Faber, 1991. Print.
  • Auden, W. H. “Criticism in a Mass Society.” The Intent of the Critic. Ed. Donald A. Stauffer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941....
  • Auden, W. H. Forewords and Afterwords. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.
  • Auden, W. H. “In Memory of W. B. Yeats.” W. H. Auden: Collected Poems. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Revised edition. London: Faber & Faber, 1991....
  • Auden, W. H. “Introduction to The Protestant Mystics.” The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Prose: 1963-1968. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Vol. V....
  • Auden, W. H. “Squares and Oblongs.” The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Prose: 1939- 1948. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Vol. II. New Jersey: Princeton...
  • Auden, W. H. The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1962. Print.
  • Auden, W. H. “The Poet and the City.” The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1962. 72-89. Print.
  • Auden, W. H. “The World of the Sagas.” The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Prose: 1963-1968. Ed. Edward Mendelson. Vol. V. New Jersey: Princeton...
  • Auden, W. H. “Writing.” Auden, W. H. The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays. New York: Random House, 1962. 13-30. Print.
  • Auden, W. H. “XXVIII” (“Autumn Song”). The English Auden. Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings: 1927-1939. Part IV: Poems 1931-1936. Ed. Edward...
  • Auden, W. H. “XXXIV” (“Stop All the Clocks”). The English Auden. Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings: 1927-1939. Part IV: Poems 1931-1936....
  • Auden, W. H. and N. H. Pearson, Poets of the English Language. Langland to Spenser. 5th. Vol. I. New York: The Viking Press, 1950. Print.
  • Badenhausen, Richard. “Double Take: Auden in Collaboration.” Auden in Context. Ed. Tony Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013....
  • Berg, James J., and Chris Freeman. “Auden and Isherwood.” W. H. Auden in Context. Ed. Tony Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,...
  • Brooks, Cleanth. “W. H. Auden as a Critic Author.” The Kenyon Review 26.1 (1964): 173- 189. Print.
  • Burrows, Mark S. “Raiding the Inarticulate: Mysticism, Poetics, and the Unlanguageable.” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 4.2...
  • Burt, Stephen and Hannah Brooks-Motl. Eds. Randall Jarrell on W. H. Auden. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Print.
  • Callan, Edward. “The Development of W. H. Auden’s Poetic Theory since 1940.” Twentieth Century Literature 4.3 (1958): 79-91. Print.
  • Cappelutti, Jo-Anne. “Making Nothing Happen: W. H. Auden’s Romantic Legacy.” Renascence 66.1 (2014): 3-23. Print.
  • Chandler, Albert R. “The Nightingale in Greek and Latin Poetry.” The Classical Journal 30. 2 (1934): 78–84. Print.
  • Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols. Trans. Jack Sage. London: Routledge, 1971. Print.
  • Clark, Thekla. Wystan and Chester: A Personal Memoir of W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. Columbia University Press, 1996. Print
  • Cunningham, Valentine. “Auden and Song.” British Library. 25 May 2016. Web. 13 September 2019. . Davidson, Gustav. A Dictionary of Angels,...
  • Everett, Barbara. Auden. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969. Print.
  • Higdon, David Leon and Mark C. Harper. “Auden ‘Abandons’ a Poem: Problems with Eclectic Texts.” Text 7 (1994): 423-434. Print.
  • Hynes, Samuel L. The Auden Generation: Literature and Politics in England in the 1930’s. London: The Bodley Head, 1976. Print.
  • Izzo, David Garrett. W. H. Auden Encyclopedia. North Carolina: McFarland and Co., 2004. Print.
  • Jacobs, Alan. “Auden’s Theology.” Auden in Context. Ed. Tony Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 170-180. Print.
  • Jones, David Albert. Angels: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
  • Kirsch, Arthur. Auden and Christianity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005. Print.
  • Mendelson, Edward. “Revision and Power: The Example of W. H. Auden.” Yale French Studies 89 (1996): 103-112. Print.
  • Mendelson, Edward. Ed. The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Prose: 1939-1948. Vol. II. New Jersey: Princeton, 2002. Print.
  • Mendelson, Edward. Ed. The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Prose: 1963-1968. Vol. V. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2015. Print.
  • Migne, Jacques Paul. Ed. “St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 103, 1,15: PL 37, 1348”. Patrologia Latina. Paris: 1841-1855.
  • Moss, Walter G. “W. H. Auden’s Wisom, Faith, and Humor.” Wisdom Page. n.d. Web. 05 May 2019. .
  • Mutter, Matthew. “‘The Power to Enchant that Comes from Disillusion’: W. H. Auden’s Criticism of Magical Poetics.” Journal of Modern Literature...
  • O’Brien, Sean. “Auden in Prose.” Auden in Context. Ed. Tony Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 329-336. Print.
  • Perry, Seamus. “Auden’s Forms.” Auden in Context. Ed. Tony Sharpe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 369-380. Print.
  • Perry, Seamus. “Auden Unparadized”, Chatterton Lecture on Poetry. Proceedings of the British Academy 162 (2008): 68-91. Print.
  • Pollnitz, Christopher. “Auden’s Styles of Verse.” Sydney Studies in English 3 (1977): 74- 102. Print.
  • Reeves, Gareth. “Auden and Religion.” The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden. Ed. Stan Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005....
  • Sharpe, Tony. Ed. W. H. Auden in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.
  • Shelley, Percy Bysshe. A Defense of Poetry. Ed. Albert S. Cook. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1891. Print.
  • Spears, Monroe K. The Poetry of W. H. Auden. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963. Print.