NOW THE LEAVES ARE FALLING FAST

NOW THE LEAVES ARE FALLING FAST

W.H.Auden

WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN (1907-1973),who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his collection The Age of Anxiety, was a versatile and intellectually vigorous poet,verse dramatist,critic,translator and editor. Poetry to him was a 'serious game' which should deepen people's self awareness but it should, in no case, directly affect men's political or religious choices. His early poems his interest in political affairs and ideas but his later poems are overtly Christian and more personal in tone. As a technician, Auden explored a variety of stanza forms and Meters. He had a passion for word-coining and using archaic words, which makes him, at times,difficult to understand. He left English as early as 1939 to settle permanently in the United States. Auden's work is divided into the British and American phases. The Notable works of the English phase are The Orators, The Dance of Death of death, Look Stranger, Spain, and Another Time. The notable works of the American phase include New Year Letter, for the Time Being, The Age of Anxiety, and The Shield of Achilles.

                              

                  NOW THE LEAVES ARE FALLING FAST

 

Born	Wystan Hugh Auden 21 February 1907 York, England
Died	29 September 1973 (aged 66) Vienna, Austria
Citizenship	British (birth); American (1946)
Education	M.A. English language and literature
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation	Poet
Spouse(s)	Erika Mann

 

Now the leaves are falling fast,

Nurse's flowers will not last;

Nurses to the graves are gone,

And the prams go rolling on.

Whispering neighbors, left and right,

Pluck us from the real delight:

And the active hands must freeze

Lonely on the separate knees.

Dead in hundreds at the back

Follow wooden in our track,

Arms raised stiffly to reprove

In false attitudes of love.

Starving through the leafless wood

Trolls run scolding for their food:

And the nightingale in dumb.

And the angle will not come,

Cold impossible, ahead

Lists the mountain's lovely head

Whose white waterfall could bless

Travelers in their last distress.