Even more and a note from Sydney Smith - Reader comments at The New York Sun

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Auden & America
in response to reader comment: Yes, and what's more

Submitted by F. Major, Mar 9, 2008 01:11

Too bad that all Ormsby can remark about Kierkegaard is that he was 'dismal,' thus faulting Auden's appreciation of Kierkegaard's mind and work. Great poets such as Auden derive inspiration and insight from despair, spiritual suspense ..and the delights and integrity of a Sidney Smith whose salient dishes have maintained their hilarity into this century. Auden's laurel wreath will always be one fancy and free. Genius is always subjct to revisionist judgments, a cutting down to whatever size is in fashion. Auden certainly is deserving of the high praise in this review.

Recipe for a Salad
By Sydney Smith (1771-1845)

To make this condiment your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boil'd eggs;
Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen seive,
Smoothness and softness to the salad give.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half-suspected, animate the whole.
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault
To add a double quantity of salt;
Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
And twice with vinegar procur'd from town;
And lastly o'er the flavour'd compound toss
A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce.
Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!
Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat;
Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,
And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
'Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today.'

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
Poor Auden! In death he is a "stick for one and a shield the other". As to facts, I have... [MORE]	Barry Larking	Mar 14, 2008 05:11
In his poem, September 1, 1939, Auden speaks directly about the l930s as "a low dishonest decade." This would include... [MORE]	Paul Dresman	Mar 10, 2008 11:59
Nope, none of it works. He didn't go to New York to pass some literary baton, he didn't go to... [MORE]	Robert Smith	Mar 10, 2008 05:44
Humorlesss? My goodness. And to charge Auden's "cloudiness" to Kierkegaard seems a real injustice. Has Ormsby read the aesthete's volume... [MORE]	Jack Johnson	Mar 9, 2008 23:46
Auden's defection was the first of two times that a poet's actions sparked debated in the House of Commons (the... [MORE]	Daniel Heinde	Mar 9, 2008 19:26
To assert, as this critic does, that writing prose improved Auden's poetry reveals a tin ear for verse. I defy... [MORE]	lawrence richette	Mar 9, 2008 19:12
While it's true that Auden's literary cohort were pacifists, it is difficult to overstate how much Auden's private life factored... [MORE]	Deschanel	Mar 9, 2008 15:23
As an historian, Auden got it right, I am sure... [MORE]	Artemio Benavides	Mar 8, 2008 17:07
Was Auden so great that he had to be secreted away to England's strategic hinterland like the atomic bomb secrets... [MORE]	Toby Mottram	Mar 8, 2008 16:57
The master of ironic subversion of himself Kierkegaard was anything but humorless. [MORE]	Shalom Freedman	Mar 8, 2008 14:15
I don't think ironic subversion is funny [MORE]	Stephen H	Mar 9, 2008 14:19
I should, perhaps, not take Ormsby's off-hand remark about Kierkegaard's humorlessness too seriously, but it is significant as yet another... [MORE]	Jan Sjåvik	Mar 8, 2008 14:02
A fine article; no complaint, but a quibble. No one who knows the work of Kierkegaard could possibly describe him... [MORE]	David Bentley	Mar 8, 2008 10:59
Migration mean change, and change always bring new biginning.Those who migrate they are unsatsifated bored in their native land .... [MORE]	Ramesh Raghuvanshi	Mar 8, 2008 02:29
Auden deserves all those high praises. Further he presided over the transfer the great Marble Laurel Wreath that passed from... [MORE]	Tom Disch	Mar 5, 2008 06:57
Too bad that all Ormsby can remark about Kierkegaard is that he was 'dismal,' thus faulting Auden's appreciation of Kierkegaard's...	F. Major	Mar 9, 2008 01:11
Whatever misguided patriotism may call Auden, no one can call him a coward. In 1939 (as in 2008), living openly... [MORE]	Marcy Haynes	Mar 9, 2008 01:15

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