SOURCE: Auden, W. H. “John Skelton.” In The Great Tudors, edited by Katherine Garvin, pp. 55-67. London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson Limited, 1935.

In the following essay, Auden regards Skelton's poetry as falling naturally into four divisions—imitations of “aureate” poetry of the fifteenth century; lyrics; poems in rhyme royal; and poems written in Skeltonics—and also finds that the drama Magnificence is interesting if overly long, concluding that Skelton was an accomplished entertainer rather than a visionary.

To write an essay on a poet who has no biography, no message, philosophical or moral, who has neither created characters, nor expressed critical ideas about the literary art, who was comparatively uninfluenced by his predecessors, and who exerted no influence upon his successors, is not easy. Skelton's work offers no convenient critical pegs. Until Mr. Robert Graves drew attention to his work some years ago, he was virtually unknown outside...