W.H AUDEN'S ENGLAND
(1901 -1973)

Out of Bloom
and Bloomsbury
before the Appeasement
when the government
and public school
started to lose
their private achievement,
Joyce nearby
disturbed literature
uniting the suburban
with an Irish proletarian voice
handing in their culture
on a silver platter
with Pernod
and the morning papers
showing a showy profit
once thought prophetic
now going all sectarian,
what does it really matter
it's all fellow traveling
W. H. with a peripatetic wink
calling everyone "mother",
"It's time for another drink"
from your sunken braided face
longing for the American sun
to set in a cold Icelandic space.