SOURCE: "'Within a Field That Never Closes': The Reader in W. H. Auden's 'New Year Letter,'" in Contemporary Literature, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, Summer, 1991, pp. 171-93.

In the following essay, Deane explores Auden's theoretical assumptions, linguistic techniques, and open-ended relationship with the reader in "New Year Letter."

In October 1941, the pages of Scrutiny registered the appearance of W. H. Auden's New Year Letter with characteristic acerbity. The long poem from which the volume as a whole took its title came in for particular excoriation, Auden's "wit" being described, somewhat condescendingly, as the sort of thing one might expect from "a theological student at a Scottish university." The conclusion of the reviewer. Raymond Winkler, was that "another edition of this book omitting the 'Letter' and the notes [to it] would detract less from Mr. Auden's deserved reputation." But even that last concession to the poet's stature evaporates under the...