This book consists of three main parts: first, close readings and critical analyses of four major poetical works by W.H. Auden—“The Watershed,” The Sea and the Mirror, “New Year Letter,” and “In Time of War”; secondly, ten semi-informal letters addressed to W.H. Auden; and thirdly, a sequence of short and long poems which adapt the life and speeches of a major public figure in U.S. politics. The issues raised in the first part—poetic voice, the lyric subject, public rhetoric, and parabolic writing—are elaborated on in the correspondence with W.H. Auden. The book proposes a creative writing discipline founded on self-mentorship—the productive and intensive exchange between creative close reading and writing, as well as reflection through letter writing to an imaginary poetic mentor. Modelled partly on Auden’s own poetic reading practise, through its imaginary correspondence, the book presents a reading practise closely attuned to the world-making possibilities of poetry. Its aim is to probe the extent to which the mentor’s world can be made amenable to the contemporary creative writing apprentice’s needs.

The book addresses some key themes in contemporary literature and poetics—place, belonging, the multiplicity of contemporary identities, poetic truth and catastrophe, and the lyric subject. This book will interest scholars, teachers, and students of literature and poetics, as well as creative writers, particularly those grappling with remote creative writing degree programmes.