Auden`s poems are treasured for their wit and intelligence, their meticulous craftsmanship, and their deep feeling for social and moral issues as well as personal ones. In the words of Stephen Spender at Auden`s memorial service in Oxford, [T]hroughout the whole development of his poetry...his theme had been love: not Romantic love but love as interpreter of the world, love as individual need, love as redeeming power in the life of society and the individual.