Oh lovely to be Wystan Hugh Auden!

How quite lovely to be Wystan Hugh Auden!
For the things that you punctually say
Are delightful and ever so gay—
………. Yet ironically double
………. Causing just enough trouble
To cause ladies to twitter: Oh, you, Auden!

How delightful to be Wystan Hugh Auden!
In the last rays of empire basking
And in general knowing, not asking:
……….Twitting fascists abroad,
……….And the bourgeois, and God—
While Oxonians murmur: So true, Auden!

What a gas ’tis to be Wystan Hugh Auden!
When addressing oneself to a body,
Not to be politic, but be bawdy:
……….To be learned, profound, yet colloquial—
……….
By turns serious, then by turns joquial—
While one’s auditors simper: Me too, Auden!

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Image: Auden1970byPeter, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) license by TorontoPeter, edited and colorized in GIMP by yours truly.

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