The Shield of Achilles

Back in print for the first time in decades, Audens National Book Awardwinning poetry collection, in a critical edition that introduces it to a new generation of readers The Shield of Achilles, which won the National Book Award in 1956, may well be W. H. Audens most important, intricately designed, and unified book of poetry. In addition to its famous title poem, which reimagines Achilless shield for the modern age, when war and heroism have changed beyond recognition, the book also includes two sequencesBucolics and Horae Canonicaethat Auden believed to be among his most significant work. Featuring an authoritative text and an introduction and notes by Alan Jacobs, this volume brings Audens collection back into print for the first time in decades and offers the only critical edition of the work. As Jacobs writes in the introduction, Audens collection is the boldest and most intellectually assured work of his career, an achievement that has not been sufficiently acknowledged. Describing the books formal qualities and careful structure, Jacobs shows why The Shield of Achilles should be seen as one of Audens most central poetic statementsa richly imaginative, beautifully envisioned account of what it means to live, as human beings do, simultaneously in nature and in history.