A Spot in Poets’ Corner

Though he died alone in a hotel room in Austria, W.H. Auden was not allowed to slip away unnoticed by New York, the city he loved. On October 3, 1973, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine held a memorial service for him at which many of his best-known poems were read by some of the most distinguished American poets of the time.Ten years later, the cathedral hosted another memorial service as part of a citywide tribute to Auden’s life and work. The Guggenheim held a reading of Auden’s work by a multitude of poets. MoMA screened a film of “The Rake’s Progress,” Stravinsky’s opera to a libretto by Auden (and his longtime partner, Chester Kallman). NYU held a public symposium on his life and work, featuring Auden’s old friends and collaborators Christopher Isherwood and Stephen Spender.Clearly the city returned Auden’s affection, and even today that affection seems to be much in evidence. While the reputations of most writers decline after their deaths, Auden’s star has blazed even more brightly posthumously. To what can we attribute this continuing regard?Auden was a poet of great gifts, and he used them generously, displaying an enormous range and variety in his work.He is a poet for all seasons and forms whose catholic tastes and love of poetic challenges led him to try verse of every kind, from limericks to libretti. While as far as I know he never wrote a triolet, it is difficult to think of another verse form that he didn’t leave improved by his work.But it is also Auden’s belief in poetry as a civilizing force. While he had some serious misgivings about the compatibility of art and religion, he had no doubts about the connection between his poetry and his sense of himself as a citizen of that City he always used a capital for. After September 11, 2001, many turned for assurance or consolation to Auden’s “September 1939,” with its famous injunction thatThere is no such thing as the StateAnd no one exists alone;Hunger allows no choiceTo the citizen or the police;We must love one another or die.And any who think – agreeing with its author who excised the piece from his “Collected Poems” – those lines are untrue might find a quieter Horatian wisdom in “The Garrison’s” conclusion: “to serve as a paradigm / now of what a plausible future might be / is what we’re here for.”Continuing the tradition, Auden’s name will be added this weekend to Poets’ Corner in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine with two days of events in his honor. The celebration will conclude with a procession to the new stone. On it are carved two lines from his poem, “The More Loving One”: “If equal affection cannot be / Let the more loving one be me.”Mr. Martin is the poet in residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. His award-winning translation of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” is available from W.W. Norton.Auden Events This WeekendSATURDAY At 2 p.m., the Poets’ Corner of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, in cooperation with the Academy of American Poets, will host a discussion of Auden’s influence on contemporary American poetry. The panel will be made up of poets and poet-critics who have found that influence in their own work: Rachel Hadas, Daniel Hoffman, David Mason, Wyatt Prunty, Rachel Wetzsteon, and David Yezzi. After the panel, Grace Schulman will introduce and play some archival recordings of Auden’s readings at the Unterberg Center of the 92nd Street Y. The program will conclude with a musical performance of Auden’s poems and lyrics.SUNDAY At 6 p.m. there will be an Evensong in Auden’s honor. The service is open to the public. Immediately afterward, there will be a procession to the Poets’ Corner led by the dean of the cathedral, the Very Reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, to view the stone that commemorates Auden.St. John the Divine is situated at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue. For more information, call 212-316-7490.

A Spot in Poets’ Corner

A Spot in Poets’ Corner

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