'In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise'

Wystan Hugh Auden is buried in Kirchstetten, Lower Austria. Auden bought a house in Austria in 1958 and spent six months there every year.

On September 28 1973, after a poetry reading to the Austrian Society of Literature in Vienna, Auden died in his sleep in his hotel room. He was 66 years old.

His funeral was at Kirchstetten on the 14th October and drew mourners from Britain and the United States. The procession to the church was lead by Auden's partner Chester Kallman who, himself, died only a few months later in Athens.

Auden was arguably the pre-eminent poet of his generation and exerted a major influence on subsequent poets. His name is often associated with fellow poets such as: Louis MacNeice, Cecil Day-Lewis and Stephen Spender. They  are often referred to as the 'Pylon Poets' due to their use of industrial imagery.

         In 1956 Auden was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. Auden is commemorated with a plaque in 'Poets' Corner', Westminster Abbey, London.One of the poems in his collection Twelve Songs (sometimes known as Funeral Blues) was featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.

For nothing now can ever come to any good.