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In January 1939 a 31-year-old English poet sailed to New York with his friend Christopher Isherwood, on temporary visas. Wystan Hugh Auden had already published Poems with Faber, written the verse for the Post Office film Night Mail, travelled to Iceland, Spain and China, and become the best-known poet of his generation in Britain. He stayed in America, became a US citizen in 1946, won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Anxiety and spent his last summers in a farmhouse in Kirchstetten, Austria. In 1994, more than twenty years after his death, a reading of his “Funeral Blues” in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him millions of new readers. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1930–1965 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
W. H. Auden’s best-known books are Another Time (1940), with “Funeral Blues”, “Musée des Beaux Arts” and “September 1, 1939”, Poems (1930), The Age of Anxiety (1947), which won the Pulitzer Prize, and The Shield of Achilles (1955), which won the National Book Award. Start with Another Time: it gathers the short poems from 1936 to 1939 that are still most read, and shows the range of forms he used, from blues to elegy.
Where to Start with W. H. Auden
If you want his most famous short poems
→ Another Time (1940) — the 1940 collection with “Funeral Blues” and the Yeats elegy.
If you want the young English Auden
→ Poems (1930) — his first book with Faber.
If you want his prize-winning later poetry
→ The Shield of Achilles (1955) — the 1955 book that won the National Book Award.
If you want his prose
→ The Dyer’s Hand (1962) — essays on reading, writing and Shakespeare.
13 W. H. Auden Books, in Order
Poems
His first commercially published book, issued in London in 1930 and dedicated to Christopher Isherwood. Besides the short poems it contains Paid on Both Sides, a verse “charade” about a feud between two families. A second edition in 1933 replaced seven of the poems. An earlier pamphlet with the same title had been privately printed in 1928 in about 45 copies.
The Orators
A mixed book of prose and verse, dedicated to Stephen Spender, about leaders, schools and the England of the early 1930s. It is one of his most difficult books, and he revised it in 1934 and again, with a new preface, in 1966.
Look, Stranger!
His second collection of short poems, published in London in 1936 and dedicated to Erika Mann, whom he had married the year before. In the United States it appeared in 1937 under the title On This Island.
Letters from Iceland
A travel book written with Louis MacNeice after their trip to Iceland in 1936, mixing letters, poems, guidebook material and photographs. It includes Auden’s long comic “Letter to Lord Byron”, part travelogue and part autobiography.
Journey to a War
Written with Christopher Isherwood after their journey through China in 1938 during the war with Japan, and dedicated to E. M. Forster. Isherwood’s travel diary is followed by Auden’s sonnet sequence “In Time of War” and a verse commentary.
Another Time
His shorter poems from 1936 to 1939, in three parts: “People and Places”, “Lighter Poems” and “Occasional Poems”. It contains many of his best-known poems, among them “Musée des Beaux Arts”, “Funeral Blues”, “Refugee Blues”, “The Unknown Citizen”, “Spain 1937”, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” and “September 1, 1939”. It was his first book published after his move to America, and is dedicated to Chester Kallman.
The Double Man
Published in New York in 1941 and in London the same year as New Year Letter. Its centre is the long title poem, a verse letter to his friend Elizabeth Mayer, to whom the book is dedicated, written as war spread across Europe, about art, politics and belief.
For the Time Being
Two long poems. The Sea and the Mirror is a commentary on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, spoken by its characters after the play has ended, with a long prose speech by Caliban. For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio, in memory of his mother, retells the Nativity in a modern setting.
The Age of Anxiety
A long poem in six parts, written mostly in a modern form of Old English alliterative verse. Four strangers, Quant, Malin, Rosetta and Emble, meet in a New York bar during the Second World War and talk through the night. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948, and inspired Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 (1949), which has the same title.
Nones
His first collection of short poems after The Age of Anxiety, published in New York in 1951 and in London in 1952, and dedicated to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and his wife Ursula. It includes “In Praise of Limestone”.
The Shield of Achilles
Includes the sequences “Bucolics”, on landscapes, and “Horae Canonicae”, built on the hours of the monastic day. In the title poem Thetis watches Hephaestus forge the shield for her son, as in the Iliad, but sees modern scenes of war instead of the ones she expects. It won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1956.
The Dyer’s Hand
His main book of criticism, published in New York in 1962 and in London in 1963, and dedicated to Nevill Coghill, his tutor at Oxford. It collects essays and lectures, many from his years as Oxford Professor of Poetry (1956–1961), on reading and writing, Shakespeare, opera, detective stories and other writers.
About the House
Centred on “Thanksgiving for a Habitat”, a sequence of poems about the rooms of the farmhouse in Kirchstetten, Austria, that he bought in 1958 with the money from the Feltrinelli Prize, the first home he owned. The book is dedicated to Edmund and Elena Wilson.
In What Order to Read W. H. Auden
Auden’s books fall into two halves, split by his move to America in 1939. The English books of the 1930s, from Poems to Journey to a War, are compressed, political and often cryptic; the American books, from The Double Man onwards, are longer, more Christian and more conversational. Another Time (1940) stands between the two, which is why it is the best place to start.
After that, read either way. Going back to Poems and Look, Stranger! shows the young poet; going forward to Nones, The Shield of Achilles and About the House shows the later one. The long poems, For the Time Being and The Age of Anxiety, are best kept until you know the shorter work. Because Auden revised and dropped poems, a one-volume Collected Poems is useful, but individual books show the poems as they first appeared.
A reading path
1. Another Time (1940)
2. Poems (1930)
3. The Shield of Achilles (1955)
4. The Age of Anxiety (1947)
5. The Dyer’s Hand (1962)
Everything Else W. H. Auden Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 19 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Plays
4
4 books · 1933–1938
- 1933The Dance of Deathhis first play
- 1935The Dog Beneath the Skinwith Christopher Isherwood
- 1936The Ascent of F6with Isherwood; the first version of “Funeral Blues” appears in it
- 1938On the Frontierwith Isherwood, dedicated to Benjamin Britten
Other poetry
9
9 books · 1928–1972
- 1928Poemsprivately printed pamphlet, about 45 copies
- 1937Spainpamphlet poem on the Spanish Civil War, later discarded
- 1945The Collected Poetry of W. H. Audenhis first collected edition
- 1960Homage to Cliopoems
- 1966Collected Shorter Poems 1927–1957revised selection, dedicated to Isherwood and Kallman
- 1968Collected Longer Poemsthe long poems in one volume
- 1969City Without Walls and Other Poemspoems
- 1971Academic Graffitilight verse
- 1972Epistle to a Godson and Other Poemspoems
Prose and libretti
4
4 books · 1950–1973
- 1950The Enchafèd Floodlectures on the sea in Romantic literature
- 1951The Rake’s Progresslibretto with Chester Kallman for Stravinsky’s opera
- 1970A Certain Worlda commonplace book
- 1973Forewords and Afterwordsessays and reviews
Published after his death
2
2 books · 1974–1976
- 1974Thank You, Foghis last poems
- 1976Collected Poemsedited by Edward Mendelson, with Auden’s final revisions
The years · 1907–1973
Quick facts about W. H. Auden
- Known for
- Being the leading English poet of the 1930s who moved to America in 1939 and wrote poems, from “Funeral Blues” to “September 1, 1939”, in almost every form English verse has, from blues and ballads to elegies and long philosophical poems.
- 1907
- Born in York, England
- 1930
- Poems published in London
- 1940
- Another Time
- 1956
- Oxford Professor of Poetry
- 1973
- Dies in Vienna
- Born
- 21 February 1907, York, England
- Died
- 29 September 1973, Hotel Altenburgerhof, Vienna, of heart failure; buried in Kirchstetten, Austria
- Education
- Gresham’s School, Holt, and Christ Church, Oxford (1925–1928)
- Citizenship
- British by birth; US citizen from 1946
- Partner
- Chester Kallman, from 1939; married Erika Mann in 1935 to give her British nationality
- Prizes
- Pulitzer Prize (1948), National Book Award (1956), Feltrinelli Prize (1957), National Medal for Literature (1967)
- Oxford
- Professor of Poetry, 1956–1961
The red mark is 1940: Another Time, the collection with most of his best-known short poems.
How W. H. Auden Writes: Every Form, and Second Thoughts
Auden used more verse forms than almost any poet of his century. Another Time alone has blues and cabaret songs (“Funeral Blues”, “Refugee Blues”), ballads (“Miss Gee”), elegies for Yeats and Freud and a satirical epitaph (“The Unknown Citizen”). Elsewhere he wrote a sonnet sequence (“In Time of War”), a long verse letter (New Year Letter), a Christmas oratorio, a whole book in Old English alliterative metre (The Age of Anxiety) and opera libretti with Chester Kallman.
His subjects moved from the private to the public and back. The poems of the 1930s diagnose a sick society through psychology and politics, in clipped, cryptic lines; after 1940, when he returned to the Church, the tone is more relaxed and argumentative, and the subjects grow domestic, up to About the House, a sequence about the rooms of his Austrian farmhouse. Much of his work starts from something else: “Musée des Beaux Arts” from a painting of the fall of Icarus, The Sea and the Mirror from The Tempest, “The Shield of Achilles” from the Iliad.
He was also a relentless reviser. He rewrote lines, retitled poems and dropped ones he came to think “dishonest”, including “Spain” and “September 1, 1939”, so the same poem can read differently from edition to edition. Edward Mendelson’s Collected Poems (1976) follows his final revisions; the individual books on this page give the poems as readers first met them.
Listen
W. H. Auden Reads His Poems
W. H. Auden reads his poems The Fall of Rome, recorded for his 65th birthday, The Shield of Achilles and One Evening. From the archive of the Poetry Archive, using recordings from the BBC archives.
Frequently asked questions about W. H. Auden’s books
How many books has W. H. Auden written?
About thirty in his lifetime, counting plays, collaborations and collected editions, most of them short books of poems. Thirteen are the key books on this page, from Poems (1930) to About the House (1965); nineteen more, including two published after his death, are listed under “Everything else”.
What are W. H. Auden’s books in order?
Poems (1930), The Orators (1932), Look, Stranger! (1936), Letters from Iceland (1937, with Louis MacNeice), Journey to a War (1939, with Christopher Isherwood), Another Time (1940), The Double Man (1941), For the Time Being (1944), The Age of Anxiety (1947), Nones (1951), The Shield of Achilles (1955), The Dyer’s Hand (1962) and About the House (1965).
Where should I start with W. H. Auden?
Another Time (1940). It collects the short poems of 1936–1939 that are still most read, including “Funeral Blues”, “Musée des Beaux Arts”, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” and “September 1, 1939”. If you want everything in one book, choose the Collected Poems edited by Edward Mendelson.
What is W. H. Auden’s most famous book?
Another Time (1940) holds most of his famous short poems. Among his longer works, The Age of Anxiety (1947) is the best known; it won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948.
What Auden poem is read in Four Weddings and a Funeral?
“Funeral Blues”, read at the funeral in the 1994 film. Auden first wrote it for the play The Ascent of F6 (1936) as a mock elegy for a politician, then rewrote it as a cabaret song about lost love, collected in Another Time. After the film, a small pamphlet of ten of his poems, Tell Me the Truth About Love, sold more than 275,000 copies.
Why did W. H. Auden leave England in 1939?
He sailed to New York with Christopher Isherwood in January 1939 and stayed, becoming a US citizen in 1946. Because war broke out months later, many in Britain saw the move as a betrayal; it was debated in the press and once in Parliament, and his reputation there suffered for years. Files released in 2023 show he was considered for Poet Laureate in 1967 and passed over because he had taken American citizenship.
Why did Auden disown “September 1, 1939”?
He came to think the poem dishonest. He wrote it in the first days of the Second World War, and it appeared in The New Republic in October 1939 and in Another Time. In his 1945 Collected Poetry he dropped the stanza with its best-known line, in 1955 he allowed it in an anthology only with that line altered, and in 1966 he left the poem out of his Collected Shorter Poems. He treated “Spain” the same way.
Did W. H. Auden win the Pulitzer or the Nobel Prize?
He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948 for The Age of Anxiety and the National Book Award in 1956 for The Shield of Achilles. He never won the Nobel Prize, although he was recommended to the Swedish Academy in the 1960s.
Who was Chester Kallman?
An American poet whom Auden met in New York in 1939 and who remained his companion until Auden’s death. Auden dedicated Another Time to him, and together they wrote opera libretti, including The Rake’s Progress (1951) for Stravinsky. Auden had married Erika Mann, Thomas Mann’s daughter, in 1935 so that she could get a British passport; they never lived together.
When and where did W. H. Auden die?
On 29 September 1973, of heart failure, in his hotel room in Vienna, after giving a reading there. He was 66. He is buried in Kirchstetten, Austria, where he had spent his summers since 1958, and a memorial stone was placed in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, in 1974.
Footnotes
- W. H. Auden — Wikipedia
- W. H. Auden bibliography — Wikipedia
- W. H. Auden — Poetry Foundation
- The Age of Anxiety — Wikipedia
- Another Time (book) — Wikipedia
- In Memory of W. B. Yeats — Poets.org
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“For poetry makes nothing happen”
— W. H. Auden, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”, in Another Time (1940)
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