THE HOMEOPATHIC CRITIC

W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice Letters from Iceland Faber London 1985

W.H. Auden

Louis MacNiece

After finishing reading Moon Country Further Reports from Iceland by the poets Simon Armitage and Glyn Maxwell, the obvious book to read was the one that inspired this publication. Auden and MacNeice travelled together to Iceland in 1937, and spent a month together recording their travels in their uniquely experimental text in Letters from Iceland. It is a remarkable publication, in which two poets record their thoughts and experiences in the one book in a way that intertwines perceptions and ideas to give a general, but subtle understanding of both place and people. A few pieces of the text that caught the sympathetic imagination are recorded here as notes jotted down for further pondering. These include the wonderful description of the critic offering homeopathic doses; Auden’s habit; the assertion of human values; the idea of punctuation as being breathing pauses; and the thought of rushing at enjoyment.

p.97

In setting up my brass-plate as a critic,

I make no claim to certain diagnosis,

I’m more intuitive than analytic,

I offer thought in homeopathic doses

(But someone may get better in the process).

I don’t pretend to reasoning like Pritchard’s

Or the logomachy of I.A. Richards.

The page references come from this 2002 edition.

p.99 . . . like Sherlock, in a dressing gown.

p.122

Minute our gesture but it must be made -

Your hazard, your act of defiance and hymn of hate,

Hatred of hatred, assertion of human values,

Which is now your only duty.

p.109

punctuation, which is something I don’t understand. I can only think of them as

breathing indications.

p.152

rushing at life like a terrier. I wonder if she really enjoys herself as much as she

protests.