The Age of Anxiety

poetry by Auden

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

The Age of Anxiety, poem by W.H. Auden, published in 1947. Described as a “baroque eclogue,” the poem was the last of Auden’s long poems; it won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1948.

The poem highlights human isolation, a condition magnified by the lack of tradition or religious belief in the modern age. The setting is nighttime at a bar in New York City, where four strangers—three men and one woman—meet, talk, and drink. The carousing ends in the woman’s apartment. Two men leave, and the third disappoints her by passing out drunk.

After exploring the spiritual emptiness, the loneliness, and the anxiety-ridden purposelessness of these characters’ lives, the poem ends at dawn on the streets of the city.

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

Britannica Quiz

A Study of Poetry

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.

The Age of Anxiety

Thank you for signing up!