TI IE
1 )YER'S
HAND
& other essays
W. IL
AUDEN
Raudom House + New York
THE DYER'S HAND AND OTHER ESSAYS
By W. H. Auden PP-
poems another time the double man on this island journey to a war
(with Christopher Isherwood)
ascent of f-6
(with Christopher Isherwood)
on the frontier (with Christopher Isherwood)
letters from iceland
(with Louis MacNeicel
for the time being the selected poetry of w. h. auden
(Modern Library)
the age of anxiety
nones the enchafisd flood the magic flute
(with Chester Kallman)
the shield of achilles homage to clio the dyer's hand
W. H. AUDEN
THE DYER'S HAND
Random House * New York
and other essays
first printing
Copyright, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, © 1956, 1957, 1958, i960, 1962,
by W. H. Auden
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada, by Random House oЈ Canada, Limited.
Manufactured in the United States of America by The Haddon Craftsmen, Inc., Scranton, Pa.
Library oЈ Congress catalog card number: 62-16290
Designed by Ruth Smerechniak
"The American Scene" reprinted with the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons from a reissue of The American Scene by Henry James. Copyright 1946 by Charles Scribner's Sons.
"Red Ribbon on a White Horse" reprinted with the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons from a reissue of Red Ribbon on a White Horse by Anzia Yezierska. Copyright 1950 by Anzia Yezierska.
The article on page 209 appeared originally in The New Yorker.
The author wishes to thank the following for •permission to reprint material included in these essays:
Harcourt, Brace & World—and Jonathan Cape Ltd. for selection from "Chard Whitlow" from A Map of Verona and Other Poems by Henry Reed.
Harvard University Press—and Basil Blackwell & Mott Ltd. for selection from The Discovery of the Mind by Bruno Snell.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.—for selections from Complete Poems of Robert Frost. Copyright 1916, 1921, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1939, 1947, 1949, by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.—for selections from The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales, edited by Paul Delarue.
The Macmillan Company—for selections from Collected Poems of Marianne Moore. Copyright 1935, 1941, 1951 by Marianne Moore; —and The Macmillan Company of Canada and Mrs. W. B. Yeats for lines from "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen" from Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats. Copyright 1928 by The Macmillan Company, copyright 1956 by Bertha Georgie Yeats;—for "The Scholars" from Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats. First published in Poetry in 1916. Copyright 1944 by Bertha Georgie Yeats;—and for "Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford" from Collected Poems of Edward Arlington Robinson. Copyright 1916 by The Macmillan Company, copyright 1944 by Ruth Nivison.
John Murray Ltd.—and Houghton Mifflin, Inc., for lines from "In Westminster Abbey" from Collected Poems of John Betjeman.
New Directions—for selections from Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West. Copyright 1933 by Nathanael West;—and for The Day of
the Locust by Nathanael West. Copyright 1939 by the Estate of Nathanael West.
Oxford University Press—for selection from Taliessin through Logres by Charles Williams.
Princeton University Press—for selection from Mimesis by Erich Auerbach. Copyright 1953 by Princeton University Press.
Schocken Books, Inc.—for selection from "The Burrow" from The Great Wall of China by Franz Kafka. Copyright 1936, 1937 by Heinr. Mercy Sohn, Prague; copyright 1946, 1948 by Schocken Books, Inc.;—and for selections from Tales of the Hasidim, by Martin Buber. Copyright, 1947, 1948, by Schocken Books, Inc.
Helen Thomas—for lines from "Home" by Edward Thomas.
The Viking Press, Inc.—and Laurence Pollinger Ltd. and the Estate of the late Mrs. Frieda Lawrence for selections from Collected Poems of D. H. Lawrence. Copyright 1929 by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith and 1957 by Frieda Lawrence Ravagli; for selections from Bird, Beasts, and Flowers by D. H. Lawrence. Copyright 1923 by Thomas Seltzer, Inc. and 1951 by Frieda Lawrence; and for selections from Last Poems by D. H. Lawrence. Copyright 1933 by Frieda Lawrence.
The Estate of Nathanael West—for selections from the works of Nathanael West.
For
NEVILL COGHILL
Three grateful memories:
a home full of books, a childhood spent in country provinces, a tutor in whom one could confide.
We have Art in order that we may not perish from Truth
f. w. nietzsche
FOREWORD
It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by- practicing it. All the poems I have written were written for love; naturally, when I have written one, I try to market it, but the prospect of a market played no role in its writing.
On the other hand, I have never written a line of criticism except in response to a demand by others for a lecture, an introduction, a review, etc.; though I hope that some love went into their writing, I wrote them because I needed the money. I should like to thank the various publishers, editors, college authorities and, not least, the ladies and gentlemen who voted me into the Chair of Poetry at Oxford University, but for whose generosity and support I should never have been able to pay my bills.