As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other Light VerseW. H. Auden once defined light verse as the kind that is written by poets who are democratically in tune with their audience and whose language is straightforward and close to general speech. Given that definition, the 123 poems in this collection all qualify; they are as accessible as popular songs yet have the wisdom and profundity of the greatest poetry. As I Walked Out One Evening contains some of Auden's most memorable verse: "Now Through the Night's Caressing Grip," "Lullaby: Lay your Sleeping Head, My Love," "Under Which Lyre," and "Funeral Blues." Alongside them are less familiar poems, including seventeen that have never before appeared in book form. Here, among toasts, ballads, limericks, and even a foxtrot, are "Song: The Chimney Sweepers," a jaunty evocation of love, and the hilarious satire "Letter to Lord Byron." By turns lyrical, tender, sardonic, courtly, and risqué, As I Walked Out One Evening is Auden at his most irresistible and affecting. |
Other editions - View all
As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other ... W. H. Auden No preview available - 1995 |
As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other ... W. H. Auden No preview available - 1995 |
As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks and Other ... Wystan Hugh Auden No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
Alma Mater Ascent of F6 Bass Solo beautiful Benjamin Britten birds bless blue boys champagne and drink Chorus Christopher Isherwood Cried the six D. H. Lawrence dance dead dear death Dog Beneath Don Juan door dreadful dream Edward Mendelson eyes face father Fill up glasses fish frowned like thunder garden girls give up Love glasses with champagne grave green Hans Werner Henze head heart Hedli Anderson hero Honeyman Isherwood Jane Austen Johnny keep kiss letters Lighter Poems lived look lovers lucky miles Miss Gee mother mountains never night nose ogre play poet poetry published round sighs silent statue sing six beggared cripples six cripples Song Speaker T. S. Eliot tell there's thought to-day truth about love verse Victor W. H. Auden Walked weep willow-wren wish write Written October Written probably