Well-Educated Mind Poetry Reading List discussion

Auden wrote a personal memorandum about Sigmund Freud after his death in 1939, to the general public. It was the year Hitler invaded Poland, and with this and other world events in mind, Auden brought attention to several of Freud's ideas and his own ideas about poetry.

Auden did not agree with everything Freud wrote about, but he respected him and many of his concepts. He juxtaposed the date of Freud's death with that of the invasion of Poland as polar opposites. Freud's thoughts represented creativity, freedom, and individuality, while the Nazi machine embraced authoritarianism, conformity, and death.

Incidentally, Freud, a Jew, fled Nazi-controlled Vienna to London, where he later died from cancer.

One of my favorite lines is this:

...all he did was to remember
like the old and be honest like children.

He wasn't clever at all: he merely told
the unhappy Present to recite the Past
like a poetry lesson...

This is a really honest and upright poem. I will probably read it a few more times. It's the kind of poem you have to read for yourself because I can't put it into fair words without butchering it.