This is my favorite poem of all time — read by my favorite poet of all time.
Once again, this is an excerpt from Auden’s “The Sea and the Mirror: A Commentary on Shakespeare’s The Tempest,” first published in 1944.
Tag Archives: Alonso to Ferdinand
My favorite poem of all time, read by W. H. Auden himself.
Dear GOD. This is my favorite poem of all time, read by W. H. Auden himself.
I had no idea this recording existed.
“But should you fail to keep your kingdom …”
But should you fail to keep your kingdom
And, like your father before you, come
Where thought accuses and feeling mocks,
Believe your pain; praise the scorching rocks
For their desiccation of your lust,
Thank the bitter treatment of the tide
For its dissolution of your pride,
That the whirlwind may arrange your will
And the deluge release it to find
The spring in the desert, the fruitful
Island in the sea, where flesh and mind
Are delivered from mistrust.
— from “Alonso to Ferdinand,” in W. H. Auden’s “The Sea and the Mirror”
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 