If nothing remained of WH Auden's work other than his love poems, they alone would be enough to secure his place as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Works like 'Lullaby', 'O Tell Me Truth About Love' and in particular 'Funeral Blues' (featured as it was in the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'), are often the first point of contact for readers with Auden. What they find are poems filled with a deep humanity as well as a strong anxiety at the passage of time and the limits of love, something he was a all too aware of from his own experience. In this, the final episode of the series, Michael Symmons Roberts speaks with guests including Alexander McColl Smith, Hannah Sullivan, Carl Phillips, Helmut Neundelinger about the evolution of Auden's love poems, while Zaffar Kunial offers a close reading of 'Funeral Blues'. Poet and priest Rachel Mann describes how the fact that Auden was gay helps explain the anonymity and formal distancing that appears particularly in his early love poems - and Alan Bennett charts Auden's relationship with his long term partner and collaborator Chester Kallman.

Producer: Geoff Bird

Poems referred to:
Lullaby
O tell Me The Truth About Love
Since
Funeral Blues
Taller Today
The More Loving One
Glad

All published by Faber & Faber
All poetry is fair dealt under criticism and review. Show less