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In Memory of W.B. Yeats

Formal Dexterity

Rhyming? No problem. Perfect metrical patterns? Check. Free-wheelin', easy-on-the-tongue formlessness? Got that, too. In case you were wondering, Auden was a master of form. Yeats had that market cornered for several decades, and Auden's poetic tribute to him alludes to Yeats's technical skill by pulling out all the formal stops.