Edward Mendelson has significantly expanded his authoritative, chronological ord
ered edition of Auden's "Selected Poems" (first published in 1979), adding twent
y items to the hundred in the original edition, and broadening the focus to refl
ect the wealth of forms, the rhetorical and tonal range, and the variousness of
content in Auden's poetry, in the confines of one volume. In particular, there a
re newly included examples of Auden's mastery of light verse: the self-descripti
ve sequence of haiku called 'Profiles', the barbed wartime quatrains of 'Leap Be
fore You Look', or 'Funeral Blues' itself. Also included are brief notes explain
ing references that may have become obscure, and a revised introduction drawing
on recent additions to Auden scholarship.
