Written in the midst of World War II after its author emigrated
to America, "The Sea and the Mirror" is not merely a great poem but
ranks as one of the most profound interpretations of Shakespeare's
final play in the twentieth century. As W. H. Auden told friends,
it is "really about the Christian conception of art" and it is "my
Ars Poetica, in the same way I believe "The Tempest" to be
Shakespeare's." This is the first critical edition. Arthur Kirsch's
introduction and notes make the poem newly accessible to readers of
Auden, readers of Shakespeare, and all those interested in the
relation of life and literature--those two classic themes alluded
to in its title.
The poem begins in a theater after a performance of "The
Tempest" has ended. It includes a moving speech in verse by
Prospero bidding farewell to Ariel, a section in which the
supporting characters speak in a dazzling variety of verse forms
about their experiences on the island, and an extravagantly
inventive section in prose that sees the uncivilized Caliban
address the audience on art--an unalloyed example of what Auden's
friend Oliver Sachs has called his "wild, extraordinary and demonic
imagination."
Besides annotating Auden's allusions and sources (in notes after
the text), Kirsch provides extensive quotations from his manuscript
drafts, permitting the reader to follow the poem's genesis in
Auden's imagination. This book, which incorporates for the first
time previously ignored corrections that Auden made on the galleys
of the first edition, also provides an unusual opportunity to see
the effect of one literary genius upon another.
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