Auden and influence

Abstract

The description of Auden's influence usually concentrates on the work of a small core group during a limited period - what Samuel Hynes called 'the Auden Generation'. My intention is to extend the discussion to include several generations of English and American poets - what might be called, to pluralise Hynes, the Auden Generations. The chapter does not purport to be a theoretical or practical-critical account of Auden's influence: it is not a set of hypotheses or close readings. Nor is it a list of writers who have obviously been influenced by Auden (although such a list would be useful, and it would be long). It is, rather, a descriptive mapping and selective interpretation of the reception of and responses to Auden's work, and an analysis of some of the significant ways in which Auden's influence has been mediated and made itself apparent. It should be acknowledged from the outset that Auden's influence has not always been positive. Auden has been blamed personally, and literally, for just about every failing in English verse over the past three-quarters of a century, and there undoubtedly are those individuals for whom his influence has been inhibiting, dispiriting or downright destructive. There have also always been those like Hugh McDiarmid, who regarded Auden as 'a complete wash-out', or like Truman Capote, who when asked what he thought of Auden's poetry replied, 'Never meant nothin' to me.' Nonetheless, Auden's influence has been widespread, and, it is worth noting (since I will be restricting myself to British, Irish and American poetry), international in its scope.