
Auden’s Grumpy Moon Landing Poem - apollinaire
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/19/audens-grumpy-moon-landing-poem
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jfengel
"Osse" is so obscure that Wiktionary didn't list it as English. Merriam-
Webster[1] gives two different obsolete definitions. I suppose the verb one
("attempt") makes more syntactic sense than the noun ("ominous utterance"),
but English makes verbs of nouns so fluidly that it's hard for me to tell
which he meant.

Ordinarily I'd say that makes it a poor word choice, but in this context it
just seems to heighten the tone. It's one of the few things to admire about
it, which seems too on-the-nose for me to think of as one of Auden's better
works. (I'll admit to liking "we like huddling in gangs and knowing the exact
time", because that's a way I'm grumpy too.)

[1] [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/osse](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/osse)

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NeedMoreTea
Resorting to the Shorter Oxford (not online AFAIK):

Variation of oss.

1\. v. Prophecy, forecast.

2\. v. Offer, give promise of, attempt, show readiness

3\. v.t. Direct (a person) to an advantageous place or thing.

Late Middle English, now dialect.

As to the poem, I actually think Auden is on to something that's rarely
thought with any major first. What does it forecast? Nothing much as it turned
out. Worth going to see? Sure. Worth seeing? Most certainly not.

I'm put in mind of the queues on Everest. Each achievement was remarkable in
and of itself. One day it'll be dull and ordinary, and well on its way to a
polluted, waste strewn industrial estate. A tick on an Instagram (or whatever
follows it) or bucket list. I'd have been an astronaut though. :)

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inflatableDodo
I like grumpy poems, Larkin's 'This Be The Verse' \-
[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-
ver...](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse) and
Betjeman's 'Slough' \- [http://www.oatridge.co.uk/poems/j/john-betjeman-
slough.php](http://www.oatridge.co.uk/poems/j/john-betjeman-slough.php) being
particular favourites.

~~~
frereubu
That Larkin poem is exactly what I thought of.

Although not poetry, you might enjoy Thomas Bernhard as well if you don't know
him already. "My Prizes" is a good short starting point:
[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/10/darkest-
comedian...](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/10/darkest-comedian/)

~~~
inflatableDodo
Thank you. Digging through quotes, I like him already - _" What matters is
whether we want to lie or to tell the truth and write the truth, even though
it never can be the truth and never is the truth."_

------
sambeau

      A rat done bit my sister Nell. 
      (with Whitey on the moon) 
      Her face and arms began to swell. 
      (and Whitey's on the moon)
      I can't pay no doctor bill. 
      (but Whitey's on the moon) 
      Ten years from now I'll be payin' still. 
      (while Whitey's on the moon)
    

—Gil Scott-Heron

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pvg
Fun to contrast with the grumpy work of a young poet at the height of his
powers

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4)

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CalChris
That is _later_ Auden. He physically didn't age well. He was in his 60s but
ravaged by a skin disease. Consider it a really well written ode to _Get Off
My Lawn_.

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mellosouls
"...I kept thinking, if his face looks like this, what must his balls look
like?" \- Hockney, after drawing the heavily wrinkled Auden.

[https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n09/seamus-perry/thats-what-
wystan...](https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n09/seamus-perry/thats-what-wystan-says)

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NelsonMinar
Auden wrote a lot of interesting poems that seem mundane, or odd, or otherwise
Not Worthy of Literary Canon. One of my favorites is the unabashedly dirty gay
poem "The Platonic Blow". Text is NSFW.
[http://derekdenton.com/blog/2016/4/27/wh-audens-dirty-the-
pl...](http://derekdenton.com/blog/2016/4/27/wh-audens-dirty-the-platonic-
blow-job)

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htk
Great dissection of the poem/author.

