Auden Delivers Poet's Views of Don Quixote

A capacity crowd overflowed the institute of Geographical Exploration's large lecture room and was forced to move to the New Lecture Hall last night to hear W. H. Auden deliver the last in the University's series of lectures marking the fourth centenary of the birth of Miguel Cervautes.

Auden's lecture, entitled "The Ironic Here," dealt with the problems facing Cervautes when he portrayed, in "Dau Quixote," a truly Christian here in the epic tradition. Auden, recently described by one critic as "the most intelligent poet writing in English today," approached the subject in the manner of a creative artist, not by critical analysis.

The poet began his talk by discussing the here concept in many of its different forms. "Quixote," he concluded, "lives in his own right beyond the words of Cervantes, continuing to classic new stories within the imagination of the reader. Like Little Abner, he outlives the imagination of his creation. He makes the Christian tradition immortal in himself as no strictly moral fictional character could.