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Ode to the Medieval Poets — simon sarris

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W.H. Auden (1907-1973) was a British-American poet © 2026 Simon Sarris

Ode to the Medieval Poets W.H. Auden Chaucer, Langland, Douglas, Dunbar, with all your brother Anons, how on earth did you ever manage, without anaesthetics or plumbing, in daily peril from witches, warlocks, lepers, The Holy Office, foreign mercenaries burning as they came, to write so cheerfully, with no grimaces of self-pathos? Long-winded you could be but not vulgar, bawdy but not grubby, your raucous flytings sheer high-spirited fun, whereas our makers, beset by every creature comfort, immune, they believe, to all superstitions, even at their best are so often morose or kinky, petrified b

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