W.H.Auden : II [Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle] | POETS.ORG

 I sometimes forget how much I enjoy the work of W.H.Auden

II [Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.]

W. H. Auden

Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle. Upon what man it fall In spring, day-wishing flowers appearing, Avalanche sliding, white snow from rock-face, That he should leave his house, No cloud-soft hand can hold him, restraint by women; But ever that man goes Through place-keepers, through forest trees, A stranger to strangers over undried sea, Houses for fishes, suffocating water, Or lonely on fell as chat, By pot-holed becks A bird stone-haunting, an unquiet bird. There head falls forward, fatigued at evening, And dreams of home, Waving from window, spread of welcome, Kissing of wife under single sheet; But waking sees Bird-flocks nameless to him, through doorway voices Of new men making another love. Save him from hostile capture, From sudden tiger’s leap at corner; Protect his house, His anxious house where days are counted From thunderbolt protect, From gradual ruin spreading like a stain; Converting number from vague to certain, Bring joy, bring day of his returning, Lucky with day approaching, with leaning dawn. about this poem “II” [Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.]  was published in Poems (Faber and Faber, 1930).  About Auden’s early work, poet Meghan O’Rourke  writes in her article “The Many Faces of W. H. Auden,”  “The early Auden was, as [Randall] Jarrellput it,  ‘oracular (obscure, original), bad at organization,  neglectful of logic, full of astonishing or magical  language, intent on his own world and his own forms.’  This is some of the work I love most, with its curious  Icelandic preoccupations (Auden had a romance with  the idea of Northernness); the frequency of phrases  like ‘spring’s green/ preliminary shiver’ and ‘love’s worn  circuit re-begun’; and its Anglo-Saxon tones (inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins),  rung in lines like  ‘Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.’” Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York, England, on  February 21, 1907. Admired for his technical virtuosity,  Auden is the author of numerous collections of poetry,  including The Shield of Achilles (Faber and Faber, 1955),  winner of the 1956 National Book Award, and The Age of  Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (Random House, 1947),  winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.  Auden served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American  Poets from 1954 to 1973. He died in Vienna on  September 29, 1973.  “II” [Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.]  was published in Poems (Faber and Faber, 1930).  About Auden’s early work, poet Meghan O’Rourke  writes in her article “The Many Faces of W. H. Auden,”  “The early Auden was, as (Randall] Jarrell put it,  ‘oracular (obscure, original), bad at organisation,  neglectful of logic, full of astonishing or magical  language, intent on his own world and his own forms.’  This is some of the work I love most, with its curious  Icelandic preoccupations (Auden had a romance with  the idea of Northernness); the frequency of phrases  like ‘spring’s green/ preliminary shiver’ and ‘love’s worn  circuit re-begun’; and its Anglo-Saxon tones (inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins),  rung in lines like  ‘Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.’” more at poets.org