''Bucolics'' is a sequence of poems by

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

written in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

and

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

. The seven poems in the sequence are: "Winds", "Woods, "Mountains", "Lakes", "Islands", "Plains", and "Streams". The sequence was first published in book form in Auden's book ''

The Shield of Achilles ''The Shield of Achilles'' is a poem by W. H. Auden first published in 1952, and the title work of a collection of poems by Auden, published in 1955. It is Auden's response to the detailed description, or ''ekphrasis'', of the shield bor ...

'' (1955), together with a parallel sequence "

Horae Canonicae ''Horae Canonicae'' is a series of poems by W. H. Auden written between 1949 and 1955. The title is a reference to the canonical hours of the Christian Church, as are the titles of the seven poems constituting the series: "Prime", "Terce", "Sext" ...

."Bloomfield, B. C., and Edward Mendelson (1972). ''W. H. Auden: A Bibliography 1924–1969''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, University Press of Virginia. .

References

{{poetry-stub Poetry by W. H. Auden