As I Walked Out One Evening Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other Light Verse

W. H. Auden once defined light verse as the kind that is written by poets who are democratically in tune with their audience and whose language is straightforward and close to general speech. Given that definition, the 123 poems in this collection all qualify; they are as accessible as popular songs yet have the wisdom and profundity of the greatest poetry. As I Walked Out One Eveningcontains some of Auden's most memorable verse: "Now Through the Night's Caressing Grip," "Lullaby: Lay your Sleeping Head, My Love," "Under Which Lyre," and "Funeral Blues." Alongside them are less familiar poems, including seventeen that have never before appeared in book form. Here, among toasts, ballads, limericks, and even a foxtrot, are "Song: The Chimney Sweepers," a jaunty evocation of love, and the hilarious satire "Letter to Lord Byron." By turns lyrical, tender, sardonic, courtly, and risque,As I Walked Out One Eveningis Auden at his most irresistible and affecting.Auden, W. H. is the author of 'As I Walked Out One Evening Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks, and Other Light Verse' with ISBN 9780679761709 and ISBN 0679761705.