W.H. Auden

W .H . Auden 's writings are one of the best examples of modernism we can give . Consider the words "But time is always guilty . Someone must pay for

Our loss of happiness , our happiness itself (from 'Detective Story ' in Collected Poems , 1991

Against the romantic writings of the time , Auden makes use of short and cryptic words that create a sense of soci0-political meaning . The poet does not choose nature or love for his themes rather he opts for politics and social issues that create a form of expression that is unique to

the modern form of writing

He wrote poems like Look , Stranger (1936 ) that focuses on social issues and 'The Poet and the City (1962 ) which suggest that politics and art should be kept separate . He suggested in his essay Poet and the City that "All political theories which , like Plato , are based on analogies drawn from artistic fabrication are bound , if put into practice , to turn into tyrannies

He was one of the first poets to make use of direct statements and compressed figures of speech in his poetry . He used traditional poetic forms in counterrevolutionary ways and presented the Christian faith in a rational manner Yet , his unique form of writing was individual to himself , as he combined the traditional and the modern and created something that was hailed as pure Auden

Mendelson [2007] states that Auden 's , . poems derive much of their unique emotional power from...