Auden wrote this extraordinary libretto for Britten's opera in the 1940s, can't remember the date, but it remains one of the freat collaborations between a poet and composer. Auden did it again, in the 1950s, with Stravinsky and his opera The Rakes Progress. Auden had such a disciplined approach to words, metre, and meaning; he was a great poet, of course, but his libretti are particularly good as an example of applied poetry. Paul Bunyan, while it has never become established as other Britten operas have, remains a brilliant example of a libretto in the service of great music. ( )