It is clear from the nature of this poem that the poem
concerns the death of somebody very important to the poet. What confuses the issue is
that this poem was famously used as an elegy for a lover's gay partner at his funeral in
the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and also Auden himself was gay, having long term
relationships with Stephen Spender and Christopher
Isherwood.
However, in spite of this, this poem actually
comes from a play, entitled The Ascent of F6, which was written
jointly with Christopher Ishwerwood about Michael Ransom trying to climb F6, a Himalyan
mountain, to please his mother. The lament comes in the play after Michael Ransom's
brother's death, James Ransom, who died. They had a very difficult relationship and
Michael constantly tried to out-shine him during his life.
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