Editing W. H. Auden (section)

===Childhood===
[[File:54 Bootham York 4.jpg|thumb|upright|Auden's birthplace in York]]
Auden was born at [[54 Bootham]], [[York]], England, to [[George Augustus Auden]] (1872–1957), a physician, and Constance Rosalie Auden (née Bicknell; 1869–1941), who had trained (but never served) as a missionary nurse.<ref>Carpenter (1981) pp. 1–12.</ref> He was the third of three sons; the eldest, George Bernard Auden (1900–1978), became a farmer, while the second, [[John Bicknell Auden]] (1903–1991), became a geologist.<ref name="Wystan">The name Wystan derives from the 9th-century [[Wigstan of Mercia|St Wystan]], who was murdered by Beorhtfrith, the son of [[Beorhtwulf]], king of Mercia, after Wystan objected to Beorhtfrith's plan to marry Wystan's mother. His remains were reburied at [[Repton]], Derbyshire, where they became the object of a cult; the [[St Wystan's Church, Repton|parish church of Repton]] is dedicated to St Wystan. Auden's father, [[George Augustus Auden]], was educated at [[Repton School]].</ref> The Audens were minor gentry with a strong [[clergy|clerical]] tradition, originally of [[Rowley Regis]], later of [[Horninglow]], Staffordshire.<ref>Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th edition, vol. I, ed. Peter Townend, 1965, Auden formerly of Horninglow pedigree</ref>

Auden, whose grandfathers were both [[Church of England]] clergymen, grew up in an [[Anglo-Catholic]] household that followed a "[[High church|high]]" form of [[Anglicanism]], with doctrine and ritual resembling those of [[Catholicism]].<ref name="CarpenterNoPage">{{cite book |first = Humphrey |last = Carpenter |author-link = Humphrey Carpenter |title = W. H. Auden: A Biography |publisher = George Allen & Unwin |year = 1981 |location = London |isbn = 978-0-04-928044-1}}</ref><ref name="RDH-NoPage">{{cite book |first = Richard |last = Davenport-Hines |title = Auden |author-link = Richard Davenport-Hines |publisher = Heinemann |location = London |year = 1995 |isbn = 978-0-434-17507-9}}</ref> He traced his love of music and language partly to the church services of his childhood.<ref name="DNB"/> He believed he was of [[Icelanders|Icelandic]] descent, and his lifelong fascination with Icelandic legends and [[Old Norse]] sagas is evident in his work.<ref>{{cite book |first = Peter |last = Davidson |title = The Idea of North |publisher = Reaktion |location = London |year = 2005 |isbn = 978-1861892300}}</ref>

His family moved to Homer Road in [[Solihull]], near [[Birmingham]], in 1908,<ref name="DNB">{{cite ODNB |first=Edward |last = Mendelson |author-link=Edward Mendelson |title = Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907–1973) |edition = online |date = January 2011 |doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/30775 |url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30775 |access-date = 26 May 2013 }}{{Subscription or libraries}}</ref> where his father had been appointed the School Medical Officer and Lecturer (later Professor) of Public Health. Auden's lifelong [[psychoanalytic]] interests began in his father's library. From the age of eight he attended boarding schools, returning home for holidays.<ref>Carpenter (1981) pp. 16–20, 23–28.</ref> His visits to the [[Pennines|Pennine]] landscape and its declining lead-mining industry figure in many of his poems; the remote decaying mining village of [[Rookhope]] was for him a "sacred landscape", evoked in a late poem, "Amor Loci".<ref>Carpenter (1981) pp. 13, 23.</ref><ref>{{cite book | first1 = Alan |last1= Myers |author-link=Alan Myers (translator) |first2 = Robert |last2 = Forsythe |title = W. H. Auden: Pennine Poet |publisher = North Pennines Heritage Trust |location = Nenthead |year = 1999 |isbn = 978-0-9513535-7-8}}</ref> Until he was fifteen he expected to become a mining engineer, but his passion for words had already begun. He wrote later: "words so excite me that a pornographic story, for example, excites me sexually more than a living person can do."<ref>{{cite book |first = W. H. |last = Auden |title = The Prolific and the Devourer |publisher = Ecco |location = New York |year = 1993 |page = [https://archive.org/details/prolificdevourer00aude/page/10 10] |isbn = 978-0-88001-345-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/prolificdevourer00aude/page/10 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first = Frank |last = Partridge |title = North Pennines: Poetry in Motion |work = The Independent |date = 23 February 2007 |url = https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/north-pennines-poetry-in-motion-437571.html |access-date = 2 December 2016 |archive-date = 14 February 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220214172129/https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/north-pennines-poetry-in-motion-437571.html |url-status = live }}</ref>