Letter to Lord Byron [Third stanza] Revised text based on Longer Contemporary Poems W. H. Auden

My last remarks were sent you from a boat.
I’m back on shore now in a warm bed-sitter,
And several friends have joined me since I wrote;
So though the weather out of doors is bitter,
I feel a great deal cheerier and fitter.
A party from a public school, a poet,
Have set a rapid pace, and make me go it.




We’re starting soon on a big expedition
Into the desert, which I’m sure is corking:
Many would like to be in my position.
I only hope there won’t be too much walking.
Now let me see, where was I? We were talking
Of Social Questions when I had to stop;
I think it’s time now for a little shop.


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 homoeopathic 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.