[New-Poetry] Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Auden is Acid, and Y'all Can Go Screw

[Skip Fox]

The notes in Ellmann's anthology _The Norton Anthology of Modern and
Contemporary Poetry_ are wrong on occasion, but I _did_ read this elsewhere
as well:

 

"Auden later attempted to revise this line, which struck him as 'dishonest.'
In one revision, the line reads 'We must love one another and die.' Another
version of the poem leaves out the entire stanza." (ftnt. #4, p. 803 in vol.
1).

 

I remember hearing he even dropped the entire poem in one version of his
selected poetry, finding it unrevisable.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of TheOldMole
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 10:22 AM
To: NewPo
Subject: [New-Poetry] Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Auden is Acid,and
Y'all Can Go Screw

 

Has anyone ever heard this before? From Christopher Hitchens.

 

Another celebrated Auden line - "We must love one another or die" - was
annexed without his permission and used in Lyndon Johnson's notorious attack
ad on Barry Goldwater in 1964, showing a little girl counting petals as she
mutates into a thermonuclear countdown. The hideous scene closes with
Auden's words. He was so furious at this that he removed the poem from his
canon. He was prone to excise things that had been exploited or distorted

 

 

Tad Richards
www.opus40.org
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/

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