All is vanity
by onepuzzledspecies
Interestingly, my post about Musée des Beaux Arts seems to have got quite a few hits during the last 24 hours. From an average of a few visits a day – mostly, I am sure, from generously minded friends – there was a sudden peak of several hundred hits, mostly from the U.S.
Either, I suppose, a freshman or GenEd poetry class has been assigned the poem for analysis with the deadline coming up in the very near future, and have therefore been frantically searching the net for the equivalent of a SparkNotes interpretation.
Otherwise, there must exist some kind of search motor multiplication function related to the keywords in the title – Auden’s vineyard – of which I’m not aware, in which case I’m being fooled by perfectly impersonal equations. I guess the next few days will show.
In the first case, I am of course happy to supply the net with easily understandable (not to say slightly superficial) comments on poetry – although I am sure the reader will be aware that the “loose immodest tone” that easily emerges out of the blog format might not provide the very best of examples for (academic) imitation. For all you know, there are gruesome factual slip-ups in there. (You are certainly more than welcome to participate in the informal “peer review” the internet makes so available!)
Regardless (unless someone should confirm the ‘eqations’ hypothesis), this does very good, or bad, things for my vanity, according to which point of view one adheres to. Luckily for me there are – of course there are – several apt reminders pertaining to such vanity to be found in Auden’s poetry.
How hard to stretch imagination
To live according to our station.
For we are all insulted by
The mere suggestion that we die
Each moment and that each great I
Is but a process in a process
Within a field that never closes.
Have a good weekend!
Hello Hedda,
I am so glad I found your blog. I will read it often. And I think I can answer your question about the sudden surge of visits from the USA. I’ll tell you how I happened across your blog. Today’s LA Times crossword puzzle has this clue: 26A -Auden’s Vineyards? I did get the answer, but got it by doing the “down” clues. And then i was curious, because I don’t “get” the answer. So I googled “Auden’s Vineyard” and guess where I landed.
I bet hundreds of others did too.
I still don’t get the clue or the answer, but I am rewarded by finding your blog. Musee des Beaux Arts is one of my favorite poems. I actually wrote a blog on my wordpress blogsite about my favorite poetry. Auden didn’t make the cut, because I can’t talk about them all!
So glad to have found your blog. Am clicking “follow” right now.
Helen (in USA)
Hi Helen,
thank you for providing the solution to the mystery! I love riddles, and was hoping that someone would give me a clue to solve this one. For a while I thought people were maybe searching for Aude’s vineyard: http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-vin+de+pays+de+l'aude
I am delighted that a crossword puzzle lead people to onepuzzledspecies. The title may be a bit misleading, since the blog deals with poems rather than puzzles – then again, it is not always that easy to tell the difference: What are poems if not small puzzles? I think I’ll have to do a post about Auden’s Riddles…
If I may ask, what was the answer to the crossword question? A poem?
Hedda
The answer was
THE GRAPES OF WH
Actually I do get it, but WP doesn’t allow editing once a comment is posted.
I especially enjoyed your post Learning by Heart. I will go and read it again now. I’ve been trying recently to memorize one of my favorite poems, Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. I’ve not made much progress, and your Learning by Heart has inspired me to spend more time on that today.
Oh, thanks for reminding me of Gray’s Elegy! It was strangely comforting to read as an undergraduate: ‘their lot forbade: Nor circumscribed alone / Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined’ indeed.
“The grapes of WH”…that is somewhat humorous. Thanks for sating my curiosity again!