Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928

No other twentieth-century poet has left behind such a wealth of teenage work as did W. H. Auden. This book allows a rare, detailed look at the development of a major poet and offers the earliest evidence of his interest in psychoanalysis, his conflicted attitude toward his homosexuality, his self-conscious approach to poetry, and his lifelong journey toward a religious sense of the world.

The poems are generously annotated with information on Auden’s education, reading, literary concerns, and personal life. In her introduction, Katherine Bucknell traces important themes relating to Auden’s entire career and describes hitherto unknown aspects of his youth.

“The evolution of a great poet is abundantly manifest here, in a volume essential not only to lovers of Auden himself, but to all who are intrigued by chrysalid mysteries.”’ John Fuller, Magdalen College, Oxford

“Auden’s early poems form a crucial chapter in the history of his imagination. By collecting and annotating these poems with an elegant scrupulosity, Katherine Bucknell has produced a very valuable addition to Auden studies and an indispensable book for the study of modern poetry.” J. D. McClatchy, Editor, THE YALE REVIEW

“Katherine Bucknell has done an excellent job as an editor. [Auden] would have acknowledged that this is the way scholarship should go about its job.” John Bayley, TLS

“As loving and meticulous and informative an edition as any writer, young or old, could wish for. Watching Auden invent Audenesque is one of the many joys of this volume.” Valentine Cunningham, CHICAGO TRIBUNE