
The New Atlantis Blogs:
- Text Patterns
- Futurisms
- Practicing Medicine
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About
Commentary on technologies of reading, writing, research, and, generally, knowledge. As these technologies change and develop, what do we lose, what do we gain, what is (fundamentally or trivially) altered? And, not least, what's fun?
Alan Jacobs
Alan Jacobs is Distinguished Professor of the Humanities in the Honors Program of Baylor University and the author, most recently, of How to Think and The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography. His homepage is here.

Sites of Interest
How to Read Well in an Age of Distraction
Watch video of Alan Jacobs discussing his book in a Washington, D.C. lecture in June 2011.

Frequently-Used Tags
Blog Archive
-
►
2016
(115)
- December (24)
- November (20)
- October (16)
- August (6)
- July (13)
- June (18)
- May (16)
- April (2)
-
►
2014
(142)
- October (12)
- September (20)
- August (22)
- July (17)
- June (5)
- May (14)
- April (12)
- March (15)
- February (10)
- January (15)
-
►
2011
(135)
- August (9)
- July (8)
- June (14)
- May (28)
- April (13)
- March (24)
- February (16)
- January (23)
-
▼
2010
(331)
- December (28)
- November (19)
- October (21)
- September (25)
- August (20)
- July (33)
- June (54)
- May (44)
- April (19)
- March (24)
- February (19)
- January (25)

Sounds intriguing. How would you suggest someone with little experience of Auden prepare to tackle this book-length poem? Any good annotated introductions to his poetry? Anyone written a good introductory essay on him and his work?
How I answered this question via email:
Don't start with this poem in reading Auden! Try the Selected Poems. And for critical assistance, read anything by Edward Mendelson.
When and if you get around to *The Age of Anxiety*, my edition begins with a long, detailed introduction that tries to make sense of the poem.