23. W. H. Auden (cont.)

Modern Poetry (ENGL 310) with Langdon Hammer

In this second lecture on W.H. Auden, the relationship between art and suffering is considered in Auden's treatment of Brueghel's "Fall of Icarus" in the poem "Musée des Beaux Arts." Auden's reflections on the place of art in society are explored in the elegies "In Memory of W.B. Yeats" and "In Memory of Sigmund Freud," where Freud's "talking cure" is recast as a model for poetry-making. Finally, "In Praise of Limestone" is considered as a late allegorical vision of a secular, non-transcendental earthly paradise.

00:00 - Chapter 1. W. H. Auden: Another Time
07:17 - Chapter 2. W. H. Auden Poem: "Musée des Beaux Arts"
18:44 - Chapter 3. W. H. Auden Poem: "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
35:12 - Chapter 4. W. H. Auden Poem: "In Memory of Sigmund Freud"
46:08 - Chapter 5. W. H. Auden Poem: "In Praise of Limestone"

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://oyc.yale.edu

This course was recorded in Spring 2007.