Auden's modernist contemporaries like T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens were known for their attempts at analytical clarity in their poems. Auden likewise sought order in his poetry, which was known for its academic or intelligent voice, often incorporating references to psychology or science, both of which fascinated the poet. Comparable to modernist contemporary Ezra Pound, Auden was concerned with social, political and economic issues, especially with the problems of fascism and the threat of World War II. In the book "Journey to War," his poem “In Time of War” satirizes the modern world, which seemed to be losing its sense of rationality.
According to The Poetry Foundation website, Auden's first book of poems was published by fellow poet Stephen Spender in 1928. These poems show Auden looking back to his predecessors, like Thomas Hardy, for style. The poems are known for being imagistic and short, many of them seeming like fragments. They are also written in local vernacular, a technique that would evolve over his career as his travels would begin to affect his poems. His leaving England to become a U. S. citizen in 1939 changed his style.
While his early poems contained idiosyncratic and private ideas that Auden shared with his Oxford friends, his first American book, "Another Time," showed a more mature voice. The poems “September 1, 1939” and “Musee des Beaux Arts” became two of his better known pieces. He would soon earn a reputation as one of the best modern poets in the English language and won the Pulitzer Prize for the book "The Age of Anxiety," which was concerned with World War II. Auden abandoned the colloquial language of his early poetry and began experimenting the musical line and with derivative styles based on Anglo-Saxon poetry. Poets.org points out that Auden was witty in his verse, and he often mimicked other writing styles to create his own voice
Auden was most concerned with the place of the human being in modern society, which he satirizes in "The Unknown Citizen," a poem that is both lightly comic in tone and disturbing in implication, as it emphasis how much the government and private industry is involved in our private lives. Auden also wrote highly intellectualized biographical poems, such as "In Memory of Sigmund Freud" and "In Memory of W.B. Yeats." These are void of his typical ironic stance, serving more as homages to people Auden considered brilliant, rational minds. Many of his poems look back sadly to a more rational time, as in "The Shield of Achilles," bemoaning the state of the modern world.
Auden ended his writing career with three major books of poetry, "City without Walls," "Epistle to a Godson" and "Thank You, Fog." By this time, he was being criticized for the idiosyncratic techniques with which he experimented. His champions argue, according to The Poetry Foundation website, that his later poems are "of a highly original and mature intellect." Poets.org says that Auden is "a major influence on succeeding generations of poets on both sides of the Atlantic."