W. H. Auden

The Bassarids

Original libretto in English, but first performance was in German.

The Witnesses

Parts I () and II () from the first version of the poem () are replaced in this later version by four stanzas starting “Young men late in the night …”. These four stanzas are followed by eight stanzas from ; stanzas 2 (“You are the town, and we are the clock,”), 3, 4, 6, …

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‘What had he done to be treated thus?’

Stanzas 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 (starting “We’re” instead of earlier “For”), 8, 9 and 10 of this poem are the only remaining parts of the first version of which remain into the second version, .