Miki Lowe for The Atlantic Published in The Atlantic in 1944 By W. H. Auden Illustrations by Miki Lowe February 21, 2024, 6 AM ET For much of his career, the poet W. H. Auden was known for writing fiercely political work. He critiqued capitalism, warned of fascism, and documented hunger, protest, war. He was deeply influenced by Marxism. And he was hugely successful. Yet in truth, he wasn’t always as certain as he appeared. “Auden was never comfortable in his role as poetic prophet to the British Left,” his biographer Edward Mendelson wrote. “He was often most divided when he sounded most committed.” Auden worried that his writing was “inflated,” preachy and inauthentic—and he doubted how much it really mattered anyway. “Poetry makes nothing happen,” he once famously said. In 1939, though, he moved from England to America; the next year, he joined the Episcopal Church and became passionately religious. He grappled with how to keep writing. “I cannot help feeling that a satisfactory theory of Art from the standpoint of the Christian faith …