Wystan Hugh Auden would have been 100 this year. Still grievously underestimated. He's the topic of the Slate book club now, and there's some fine stuff in that discussion.
Was reminded of his famous "All that he did was remember / like the old and be honest like children", since a bit of the discussion centers on some early poems that Auden later cut from his body of work. He cut them because they were "dishonest" - mostly because they were about feelings he hadn't actually felt. So, emotionally dishonest, if you like.
It's an interesting position, to say the least. Not one I agree with, but still interesting. Imagine the implications if all writers substribed to that?
Never write of things you don't really believe, of feelings you don't feel, of convictions you won't defend.
Would change things up quite a bit, wouldn't it?
Of course, one has to doubt the old man looking at the poems of his youth, sorting through which feelings were true and which weren't. There are certainly things I'd wish I'd known better than to think or feel. Doesn't change the fact that I did.
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