Archives for July 2012

“The poet who writes ‘free’ verse is like Robinson Crusoe on his desert island: he must do all his cooking, laundry and darning for himself. In a few exceptional cases, this manly independence produces something original and impressive, but more often the result is squalor–dirty sheets on the unmade bed and empty bottles on the unswept floor.”
W.H. Auden, “Writing”

Glenn Gould practices Bach’s C Minor Partita:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)

“One cannot review a bad book without showing off.”
W.H. Auden, “Reading”

From 2004:

For me, The Rules of the Game is the obvious Greatest Movie Ever Made, and I expect a lot of other critics would agree with me, or at least consider it a completely plausible candidate. Beyond that, I have my doubts. Right at this moment–and no other–I’d be inclined to follow it up with Citizen Kane, Vertigo, The General (a silent film, please note!), and…er, um…I don’t know. The Searchers? His Girl Friday? Chinatown? I simply can’t tell you. The greatest opera ever written is The Marriage of Figaro, except when it’s Falstaff, but what’s the fifth greatest? That’s a party game…

Read the whole thing here.

“Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another; they might also ask themselves how much poetry of any period they can honestly say that they understand.”
W.H. Auden, “The Dyer’s Hand” (BBC broadcast, 1955)

Night Mail, a 1936 film documentary written by W.H. Auden and scored by Benjamin Britten:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)

“All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.”
W.H. Auden, A Certain World: A Commonplace Book

The Wall Street Journal has kindly given me two weeks off to work on my Duke Ellington biography. I’ll be filing a “Sightings” column as usual next Friday, but my next drama column will not appear until July 27.
Later!