Front cover image for W.H. Auden's book of light verse

W.H. Auden's book of light verse

"Auden's anthology of light verse is packed with surprising finds while also offering a rethinking of the poetic canon. Commissioned by Oxford University Press in the 1930s, when Auden's own work was at its boldest, the book caught its original publisher off guard. For it is less a collection of humorous verses than a celebration of the popular voice in English, in which the work of great satirists like Swift and Byron keeps company with ballads, chanteys, ditties, nursery rhymes, street calls, bathroom graffiti, epitaphs, folk songs, vaudeville turns, limericks, and blues. Turning away from the post-Romantic cult of the sentimental lyric, Auden features poetry that is clear, enjoyable, and, no matter its age, absolutely modern." "This new edition includes previously censored poems, together with Auden's introduction and a new preface."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2004
New York Review Books, New York, 2004
xxxvi, 553 pages ; 21 cm.
9781590170892, 159017089X
55746895
Revised edition of: The Oxford book of light verse. 1938
Includes indexes