W. H. Auden, O What Is That Sound

Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication Dec 1934

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

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“O What Is That Sound” is a ballad by W. H. Auden, written in October 1932 and first published in 1934. It has proved to be one of the more popular of Auden’s poems of the 1930s, evoking for many readers the private terrors felt in that age of political persecutions, even though the historical setting of its implied events seems to be the eighteenth or nineteenth century, the “scarlet soldiers” suggesting British military uniforms of that era. Much later, in a lecture of 1971, Auden himself gave an account of how he had come to compose this poem with the deliberate aim of producing a nightmarish effect.

“O What Is That Sound” was first published as “Ballad” in Geoffrey Grigson’s magazine New Verse (December 1934) and then reprinted untitled as poem VI of Auden’s next

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1776 words

Citation: Baldick, Chris. "O What Is That Sound". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 November 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35833, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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