Earth, Receive an Honored Guest

W.H. Auden is widely considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century. Auden grew up in England but spent some of his adult years in the United States. When he passed away on the 29th of September, 1973, three of Auden’s greatest admirers happened to be together: the critic Alfred Kazin, Kazin’s wife, Ann Birstein, and the poet Richard Wilbur.

As soon as they received word the poet had died, they each proclaimed with one…