W. H. Auden: Contexts for Poetry is an attempt to consolidate the critical findings of the last quarter century, and then take them a step further in the direction of seeing how some of Auden's most important poems can be better understood against the background of his own intellectual development and the often troubled history of his time. The book is at least as much an attempt to show how a certain type of critical methodology, which combines intellectual and social history, biography and textual analysis, helps to illuminate poems that have hitherto remained imperfectly understood. It also "contextualizes" Auden's poetry within the main parameters of existing Auden criticism, taking into account and evaluating the critical insights of the last two generations of Auden critics. This book is not a "survey" or a guide to all or even most of Auden's poetry, though it does follow the general outlines of Auden's development as a poet and thinker.