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Wystan Hugh Auden ( February 21, 1907– September 29, 1973) was an English poet.

He was born in York and spent his early childhood in Harborne, Birmingham, where his father Dr George Auden was school medical officer for Birmingham and Professor of Public Health at the University of Birmingham.

Auden wrote a considerable body of criticism and essays as well as co-authoring some drama with his friend Christopher Isherwood, but he is primarily known as a poet. Auden's work is characterised by exceptional variety, ranging from such rigorous traditional forms as the villanelle to entirely unstructured verse, as well as the technical and verbal skills Auden displayed regardless of form. He was also partly responsible for re-introducing Anglo-Saxon accentual meterAccentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line or stanza regardless of the number of syllables that are present. It is common in languages that are stress timed such as English as opposed to syllabic verse, which is common in syllable timed langu to English poetry.

Auden was deeply involved in political controversies of his day and some of his greatest work reflects these concerns, such as Spain, a poem on the Spanish Civil WarTeruel, east of Madrid. For an article about the 1820-1823 civil war in Spain, see: Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823 The Spanish Civil War ( 1936 1939) was the result of complex political differences between the Republicans — supporters of the government of t and September 1, 1939 on the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough. Other memorable works include his ChristmasChristmas (literally, the Mass of Christ) is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar which takes place on the twenty-fifth day of December and celebrates the nativity of Jesus Christ. Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holiday throughout mu oratorio, For the Time Being, The Unknown CitizenThe Unknown Citizen is a poem by W. It was written in 1940. It is the epitaph of a man, as told by the state. The poem has strong resemblances to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four., Musée des Beaux-Arts, and poems on the deaths of William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats ( June 13, 1865 January 28, 1939), often referred to as W. Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, mystic and public figure. Yeats was one of the driving forces behind the Irish Literary Revival and was co-founder of the Abbey Theatre. and Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud ( May 6, 1856 September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. He became interested in hypnotis. Auden's poem Funeral Blues was movingly read in the 19941994 is a common year starting on Saturday, and was designated the International year of the Family''. Events January events January 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect January 6 Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an film Four Weddings and a Funeral. Before this Auden's work was also used in the United Kingdom Post Office documentary film Night Mail .

Auden married Erika Mann, daughter of the great German novelist Thomas Mann, in 1935. The primary motive for this marriage was to provide his bride with a passport to escape the Third Reich. That it produced no children is less than surprising, given Auden's homosexuality.

Auden settled in the United States in 1939 and became a US citizen. This move away from Britain just as the war was starting was seen by many as a betrayal and his poetic reputation suffered briefly as a result. Having spent many years in America he returned to Europe during the last years of his life and spent that time predominantly in Austria, and Oxford in the UK; he had been professor of poetry at Oxford University during the 1950s. He died in Vienna in 1973.

Auden was part of a group of like-minded writers including Edward Upward , Christopher Isherwood, and Stephen Spender.

Auden used many phrases from Anthony Collett's Changing Face of England in his poems.