Aidan, you ask whether American poetry in the second half of the 20^th century could exist as we know it without Auden, and my response has to be no: To take but one example, John Ashbery—who went on to be the next dominant force in American poetry—famously said that in the 1940s Auden "was the modern poet," presumably he said this both because he had had his eyes opened by Auden's style of ironic detachment and because in practical terms Auden had mentored a host of young poets from his house on St. Mark's Place in New York, where he created a salon (or a playroom?) over which he presided as a messy and quick-witted monarch. (Legend has it that a young poet once walked into Auden's apartment and nervously asked Ashbery what he should say to him; Ashbery responded, "You should thank him for being alive.") But it's kind of a trick question, isn't it? It doesn't necessarily mean that Auden is the most American of poets.