It's in Fulcrum 5. I saw Auden in 1967 when he gave a poetry reading at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Invited by the Jesuits -- maybe 50 people at the reading! Students then invited Ginsberg to read but the Jesuits said no -- since Ginsberg was a homosexual. hahahhaha.
Here are two or more poems I wrote about Auden (and I think he's probably the top 20th century English language poet). Notice that the second one is shaped like half a Christmas tree. Calm down ghost of George Herbert!
Auden at Christmas
W.H. Auden
Perhaps the plummest
Said “Of all major poets
Tennyson’s dumbest.”
It was so cold outside
But cozy within.
A nice place to abide
With bitters and gin.
It was the season of hope
Hence reassuring them
That it was a dope
Who wrote “In Memorium.”
But Auden wasn’t a dummy.
And it was Christmas eve.
Right then he felt plummy.
Very soon he would leave.
Auden at Christmas II
W.H. Auden
Very bad
Made a list:
“Boys had:
Botley
Smythe
Thomson
Herbert...”
But at sixty
He only had one
After sherbert.
Then some cigarettes
Several vodka martinis.
It was Christmas eve
For a bit he felt greenly.
Wrote several cruel verses.
Meant none of them meanly.
Then listened to funeral music from “Tristan.”
If there was any meaning,
It appears to have missed him.
Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Hey, it's overcast here too, & cold, but that was something to warm the
cockles, & laughter is the best medicine....
So where would we find that poem, Joe?
Doug
On 9-Feb-07, at 6:47 PM, andrew burke wrote:
> Ah, Joe, I am rolling about larfing ... That is a good one! Thanks for
> the
> lift on an overcast day ...
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On 10/02/07, joe green wrote:
>>
>> I casn't resist any more. Auden felt the way he felt about the poem
>> because of memories of my uncle...as demonstrated here.
>>
>> In this fine poem.
>>
>> Incident on Fifty-second Street
>>
>> "I sit in one of the dives
>> On Fifty-second Street
>> Uncertain and afraid."
>>
>>
>>
>
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
The stars wheel over
The Cross drops its image
Into the watertank.
David Campbell
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