W H Auden: pause during a poetry reading at Oxford Union 1972. Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) was an English poet and critic, widely regarded as among the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. He spent the first part of his life in the United Kingdom, but emigrated to the United States in 1939, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1946. W H Auden, The Life of a Poet, by Charles Osborne.