My issue with Auden’s is his intelligence too often cowers over the poems. I don’t sense that in this one. Maybe I’ll try again. I have his selected.
It’s my impression that the thing that separates good from great formal poets is their instinct, talent for rhymes. The way he makes rhyming couplets here almost unnoticeable is what I mean. There’s a softness that doesn’t bang bang. I don’t know if that’s teachable.
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