The Common Life (For Chester Kallman)

Title: The Common Life (For Chester Kallman) See all items with this value
Creator: Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973 See all items with this value
Date Created: 1963
Relation: A Scarf as Protection and Solace / "The Common Life (for Chester Kallman)"
Description: W. H. Auden’s poem is an ode to the secrecy granted by the house through features that strongly resonate as analogies to the personalities of its dedicated occupants: Auden and his partner, Chester Kallman. The poem emanates comfort and closeness as Auden guides the readers through their home in Austria. Auden answers the question: what makes the home a haven for a relationship? Devotion is not found in money or luxury, but in an intangible type of wealth characterised by precious everyday moments. “The Common Life” caters to the reader’s sense of familiar contentment in their own home. The poem shows Auden’s ability to capture love in the most mundane moments. The subtlety the poem emits is indicative of the secrecy that the two men relied upon during their time together. The type of love that Auden writes about is not perfect and poised, but raw and human—that is, centered around being free to be vulnerable in their own home.
References: Auden, W.H. “The Common Life: W.H. Auden.” The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2020, www.nybooks.com/articles/1963/12/26/the-common-life/.

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Items with "Relation: The Common Life (For Chester Kallman)"
Title	Class
A Scarf as Protection and Solace / "The Common Life (for Chester Kallman)"	Image
Nadya Bremner's Audio Reflection on "A Scarf as Protection and Solace"	Sound