Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner
The Age of Anxiety
by W. H. Auden
Summary
A long dramatic poem set in a wartime Manhattan bar, where four strangers meditate on loneliness, faith, and the fractured modern self. Auden writes in alliterative Anglo-Saxon meter, blending pub vernacular with theological inquiry into a hybrid that is at once playful and grave. The work named the spiritual mood of an era and stands as one of the most ambitious long poems of the century.
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Historical Context & Significance
Auden had recently moved to the U.S.; the title of this book became the defining phrase for the post-war era of existential dread.