His poems of also, the second poem I will read, is a kind,
is a kind of--
it derives a lot from movies, from early movies
in which you see some situation, like a kind of battle, war,
gunfire between two gangs, and someone imprisoned by one gang.
This poetry, written in 1928 about warfare between gangs,
which reminded one rather of Western movies,
as a matter of fact, seemed very strange then.
But in a way, I think it was prophetic of a lot of warfare
which happened later.
"Control of the passes was, he saw,
the key to this new district, but who would get it?
He, the trained spy, had walked into a trap for a bogus guide,
seduced with the old tricks.
At Greenhearth was a fine site for a dam and easy power,
had they pushed the rail some stations nearer.
They ignored his wires.
The bridges were unbuilt and trouble coming.
The street music seemed gracious now to one for weeks
up in the desert.
Woken by water running away in the dark,
he often had reproached the night
for a companion dreamed of already.
They would shoot, of course, parting easily
who were never joined."
Its lines that some--
"They would shoot, of course, parting easily who
were never joined," "The bridges were unbuilt and trouble
coming."
It's a strange kind of mixture of something
which is both funny and rather sort
of tragic at the same time, a sort of joke-- a kind of joke
here, a joking kind of language, which you don't quite
understand what it's about, but it
sounds vaguely rather sinister.
Well, when I first met Auden when I was an undergrad,
I was writing very romantic poetry.
And so it was a considerable shock to meet Auden.
I used to read--
well, he used to read me his poems.
And then, sometimes, I used to show him my poems.
And he'd read about 500 lines or something.
And he'd say, I think one line is rather good.
[LAUGHTER]
And I think a line I remember, which I put in, obviously,
because I'd been reading him, was, "In a new land,
shooting is necessary."
It was sort of picked up--
[LAUGHTER]
--of about 500 line.
So anyhow, the result was that still being very romantic,
I kind of adopted my emotional style
to Auden's very clipped, clinical style,
symptomatic style.