Allen, my earlier (deleted) post was a piece of self-aggrandisement related to an appearance in an anthology. I regretted it immediately.
The vision? I think it's just the rosy hope that entices one into eventual disappointment. Auden knew what he was referring to and perhaps the original recipient did, but, as a reader, I think it serves the poem better to provide one's own example than to guess at Wystan's.
By the way, I believe there's an "all" missing in your line seventeen.
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