Why would a poem written in 1940 be included in The Best American Poetry 2023? W. H. Auden’s brilliant poem about contradictions wasn’t published during his lifetime because he questioned its value. Auden was a great poet who doubted his greatness. Even when he won awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for The Age of Anxiety, he questioned his skill. He was an anxious nail-biter who held back much of his work. Many of the writers I know also suffer from self-doubt. From what I’ve seen, it’s easy to become your own worst enemy when you question your worth.
Auden, W. H. “We Get the Dialectic Fairly Well.” The Best American Poetry 2023, Elaine Equi, guest editor, David Lehman, series editor, Scribner Poetry, 2023, pp. 5-6.