W. H. Auden, In Praise of Limestone

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 1948

Places

England (Publication/ performance)
Italy (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

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“In Praise of Limestone” (1948) is a poem of 93 unrhymed lines by W. H. Auden, one of the most highly regarded of his post-1939 works. It celebrates the gentle contours typical of a limestone landscape as a sustaining home to human values of easy tolerance, this terrain being indulgent and forgiving by contrast with the fanaticisms that Auden associates with the ocean and with lands of granite or clay. It draws upon Auden’s lifelong fascination with geology: his elder brother John Auden was an eminent professional geologist (hence the allusion to sibling rivalry at lines 18-20). Auden’s poem offers no scenic description, but in a playfully allegorical manner invites us to read physical and human geographies in terms of each other. Its style is flexibly unassertive, more informally…

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2239 words

Citation: Baldick, Chris. "In Praise of Limestone". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38785, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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