The Shield of Achilles
Synopsis
Back in print for the first time in decades, Auden&’s National Book Award–winning poetry collection, in a critical edition that introduces it to a new generation of readersThe Shield of Achilles, which won the National Book Award in 1956, may well be W. H. Auden&’s most important, intricately designed, and unified book of poetry. In addition to its famous title poem, which reimagines Achilles&’s shield for the modern age, when war and heroism have changed beyond recognition, the book also includes two sequences—&“Bucolics&” and &“Horae Canonicae&”—that Auden believed to be among his most significant work. Featuring an authoritative text and an introduction and notes by Alan Jacobs, this volume brings Auden&’s collection back into print for the first time in decades and offers the only critical edition of the work.As Jacobs writes in the introduction, Auden&’s collection &“is the boldest and most intellectually assured work of his career, an achievement that has not been sufficiently acknowledged.&” Describing the book&’s formal qualities and careful structure, Jacobs shows why The Shield of Achilles should be seen as one of Auden&’s most central poetic statements—a richly imaginative, beautifully envisioned account of what it means to live, as human beings do, simultaneously in nature and in history.Book details
- Series:
- W. H. Auden: Critical Editions Ser. (Book 1)
- Author:
- W. H. Auden
- ISBN:
- 9780691256580
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780691218656, 9780691260921
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- Pages:
- 136
- Reading age:
- Not specified
- Includes images:
- No
- Date of addition:
- 2024-05-06
- Usage restrictions:
- Copyright
- Copyright date:
- 2024
- Copyright by:
- N/A
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Categories:
- Literature and Fiction, Poetry