Auden is a poet - no, the poet - of unembarrassed intellect. Ideas are his emotions, emotions are his ideas.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.
The poet is someone, I think, who's interested in registering experience immediately or giving you the sense of immediacy and directness.
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
The eyes of a poet discover in each person a unique and irreplaceable humanity. While arrogant intellect seeks to control and manipulate the world, the poetic spirit bows with reverence before its mysteries.
My opinion is that a poet should express the emotion of all the ages and the thought of his own.
Well, it's a badge of honour for any self-respecting poet to be criticized by Auberon Waugh. But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both.
Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.
Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.
Poets are like the decathletes of literature.
I don't think Auden liked my poetry very much, he's very Anglican.