Auden Centenary In York

Henry Alford writes in "Shouts and Murmurs" for The New Yorker, this short humorous piece titled The Knowledge, inspired by an article in The Times noting that cabdrivers in York have been memorizing Auden's poems to entertain their passengers who are visiting the city for the centenary celebration. Here's an excerpt from Alfords piece:

’Ewas me Norf, me Souf, me East and West,

Me working week and me Sund’y rest,

Me noon, me midnight, me talk, me song;

I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.


’E ’ad a gentleman friend, Mr. Auden did, dinnee? Bit of a trouser man, orroight? That seems to be the way nowadays, innit, wif actors and M.P.s and clergy and wot ’ave you. In my day, there weren’t a need to fling yer spanky knackers into other folks’ faces all jumble-wumble and ’ere’s-mine-guv’nor. Though the missus did drag me to see Mr. Rudolf Nureyev at the ballet once. That man packed a full bag of groceries, dinnee?

The whole thing is quite funny and short, so definitely click on the link to read the rest.

Note to MadPriest: this is much more your sort of thing, but I decided that I would have it.

The anniversary occurred on 21 February 2007, so it's probably too late to plan to attend.