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2025 NFL mock draft: Browns land Travis Hunter, Mason Graham cracks top three
Read Dane Brugler’s 2025 ‘The Beast’ NFL Draft guide.
The NFL Draft features 32 first-round picks. It does not, however, necessarily feature 32 prospects with a first-round grade.
Most drafts don’t sniff that number. And though the 2025 NFL Draft definitely features depth of talent at several positions, the number of players in this class with a consensus first-round grade is likely in the low teens. That’s especially important when discussing the top two quarterbacks, Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. Both are very good prospects, but I’m not sure we can objectively call either “elite.”
A first-round grade means the player has almost no scouting holes, no serious questions about whether or not he’ll be able to handle a starting workload for an NFL team (likely a bad one) tomorrow. A year ago, there were three quarterbacks who fit that bill: Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye. This year, quite frankly, there are zero.
It’s still possible Ward and Sanders land in the top 10. But it’s also possible one of those players — more likely Sanders — takes a tumble.
With that in mind, here’s my latest three-round mock draft:
1. Tennessee Titans: Cam Ward, QB, Miami
To be clear, I would not do this. Same time, there’s too much smoke to ignore that first-year GM Mike Borgonzi’s priority is a quarterback, and if you’re going to take one this high, it’s absolutely Ward. I do not think he’d have gone higher than Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye last season, but it’s possible — given the QB desperation league wide — he’d have been a top-10 pick in 2024.
GO DEEPER
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2. Cleveland Browns: Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado
The best football player in this draft class and one of the most unique talents we’ve seen in years, Hunter will make an impact wherever he goes — and wherever he lines up — immediately next year. If he sticks at CB he’ll arguably have the best ball skills of any DB in the NFL. He’s that good. This could also be Shedeur Sanders, though I’m decidedly less sure about him than I am Ward.
3. New York Giants: Mason Graham, DT, Michigan
The Giants have spent the entire offseason trying to find veteran quarterbacks in the face of this rookie class, so this, too, could be a Sanders landing spot. But I have zero questions about Graham’s ability to help the Giants immediately.
4. New England Patriots: Abdul Carter, edge, Penn State
Carter’s foot situation certainly complicates matters, though I wouldn’t rule him out as a top-three selection here. If he’s healthy, Carter has a chance to be the best pro in this class. Foot injuries are very scary, however.
5. Jacksonville Jaguars: Will Campbell, OT, LSU
Campbell’s arms are a bit short — if he wasn’t so good with his hands and feet, that might be an issue. But Campbell, one of the hardest workers in this draft class, is a terrific athlete. Like when the Chargers drafted Rashawn Slater, nobody should overthink this.
6. Las Vegas Raiders: Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State
Jeanty is the NFL Draft’s best running back prospect since at least Bijan Robinson/Jahmyr Gibbs. He might be the best we’ve seen since Saquon Barkley. Regardless of where he fits in that tier, though, he absolutely should be a top-10 pick.
7. New York Jets: Armand Membou, OT, Missouri
At the very least, the Jets have a bridge QB in Justin Fields. It’s also possible Fields turns a corner and becomes the team’s long-term starter. Either way, New York’s new regime is not in position to roll the dice on a QB.
Aaron Glenn should remember when Detroit passed on QB talent in 2021 to draft Penei Sewell. Start your rebuild there.
8. Carolina Panthers: Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona
The tape tells the story with McMillan — and part of that story is that his less-than-stellar 40 time isn’t that big a deal. McMillan was a man among children at times in college and has the ability to help Bryce Young and this young Panthers offense immediately.
9. New Orleans Saints: Tyler Warren, TE, Penn State
The 2025 draft class features another great tight end group, and Warren — a true three-down player with the potential to be a dominant run blocker — is leader of the pack. The tight end position has evolved so much in the last 10 years, and Warren has the talent worthy of a top-10 pick.
GO DEEPER
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10. Chicago Bears: Shemar Stewart, edge, Texas A&M
The No. 2 edge in this class is a tough call, especially if we’re lumping Jihaad Campbell and/or Jalon Walker in with that group. A case certainly could be made for Georgia’s Mykel Williams here. But Stewart (6-5, 267) is actually bigger than Williams, and nearly as long (34 1/8 arms). He’s the most athletic edge in this class not named Abdul Carter.
11. San Francisco 49ers: Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama
It’s hard to compare people to Micah Parsons. Campbell isn’t as fast as the Cowboys’ dynamic superstar, but he’s not that far off — and he’s probably at least as explosive. As was the case with Parsons when he came out of college, Campbell hasn’t scratched the surface with regard to all the things he can do on a football field.
12. Dallas Cowboys: Will Johnson, CB, Michigan
It’s not nothing that Johnson has avoided athletic testing at all costs this offseason. It’s also not nothing he more or less sat the 2024 season out after getting dinged up early. But the tape doesn’t lie — Johnson’s confidence is off-the-charts good, as is his football IQ. He definitely could tumble, but he’s a worthy top-15 prospect.
13. Miami Dolphins: Nick Emmanwori, S, South Carolina
The most complete athlete in this draft, Emmanwori has versatility that knows nearly no limit — he’s 6-foot-3, 220 pounds with a 4.38-second 40 time, 43-inch vertical and 11 foot, 6 inch broad jump. He’s still learning how to be consistent, but Emmanwori has the potential to be a defensive coordinator’s best friend.
14. Indianapolis Colts: Colston Loveland, TE, Michigan
There are days when I think Loveland might be right there with Warren as a legit top-10 prospect. An outstanding receiver who terrorized linebackers and has the ability to beat safeties (and some corners), Loveland is also a better blocker than people realize and one of the most dependable talents on the board. He’d be a perfect fit in Indianapolis.
15. Atlanta Falcons: Mykel Williams, edge, Georgia
Williams’ scouting profile almost could be used to explain most of this class: He’s a terrific athlete (at 6-5, 260) and has limitless potential as a do-it-all edge with interior rush potential, but he’s also really never put everything together. Though it could take a minute for him to develop, he has true star potential at an incredibly valuable position.
16. Arizona Cardinals: Derrick Harmon, DT, Oregon
It wouldn’t be a shock if Harmon winds up going higher than this. At 6-4, 313, he’s bigger than Graham and probably comes with more versatility — he’s already proven he can walk outside and handle himself as a big edge.
Derrick Harmon impressed throughout his drills 📈 @OregonFootball
📺: #NFLCombine on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/RApm9yEw3q— NFL (@NFL) February 27, 2025
17. Cincinnati Bengals: Mike Green, edge, Marshall
Like Carter, Campbell and Walker, Green is a phenomenal athlete who gives off Parsons-like vibes in terms of versatility. There also are serious off-field questions here teams will have to investigate before making a decision.
18. Seattle Seahawks: Tyler Booker, G, Alabama
Booker’s not a perfect prospect. Scouts wanted to see more consistency from him as a junior, but they also understand that Booker’s been one of the SEC’s most physically impressive offensive linemen since the first game of his true freshman season. It feels like Seattle has been looking for a prospect like this for at least five years.
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jalon Walker, edge, Georgia
This might be the floor for Walker, whose testing may have caused him to slip behind Campbell and Green on some boards. Still, he’s a legit playmaker anywhere he lines up — a hell-on-wheels front-seven defender who’d be perfect for Todd Bowles.
20. Denver Broncos: Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State
One of my favorite players in this class, Egbuka is this year’s version of Amon-Ra St. Brown — a fearless competitor who was a difference-maker from Day 1 inside one of the country’s best programs. As far as I’m concerned, he’d qualify as the “Joker” weapon Sean Payton wants.
21. Pittsburgh Steelers: Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
Even if Pittsburgh signs Aaron Rodgers, and even if Rodgers has some gas left in the tank we simply haven’t seen over the past three years, the Steelers have to devise a long-term plan for the most important position on the field. I cannot get there on Sanders as a top-10 pick, and I don’t think he’s ready to help fix a truly bad team. He’ll be a much better fit if he lands somewhere that can give him a supporting cast.
GO DEEPER
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22. Los Angeles Chargers: Omarion Hampton, RB, North Carolina
Jim Harbaugh’s backfield needs thunder and lightning. And Hampton, a 221-pound hammer with speed and wiggle, can be both at the same time. Not only did he rush for more than 3,000 combined yards the last two years, but also he had more than 60 catches.
23. Green Bay Packers: Jahdae Barron, CB, Texas
A tough, smart, dependable competitor, Barron reminds me of a bigger version of Washington’s Mike Sainristil. He can play anywhere in the defensive backfield, and you’re going to get everything he has on every snap. He’d be perfect for the physical and talented NFC North.
24. Minnesota Vikings: Grey Zabel, G/C, North Dakota State
Zabel was a true five-tool offensive lineman in college. He’s not long enough to be an every-day tackle in the NFL, but his ability to make things happen inside is undeniable. Zabel is a powerful, explosive, flexible athlete with elite football IQ.
25. Houston Texans: Joshua Simmons, OT, Ohio State
After suffering a knee injury early during the 2024 season, Simmons expects to be ready for the start of his rookie year. If he hadn’t suffered that injury, it’s fair to wonder if Simmons might have been OT1 in 2025. And the Texans have to find people who can keep C.J. Stroud off the ground.
26. Los Angeles Rams: Josh Conerly Jr., OT, Oregon
Consistency is lacking, but Conerly is a young prospect with elite athletic traits and equally exciting flashes. His potential fit inside an offense that needs run blockers capable of being dangerous on the move and in space could be terrific.
27. Baltimore Ravens: Donovan Ezeiruaku, edge, Boston College
It’s possible Ezeiruaku is long gone by the late 20s, as the depth of his pass-rush arsenal and his attention to detail are arguably better than any other rusher in this class. He’s also one of the most agile (sub-7-second three-cone at the combine).
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28. Detroit Lions: Kelvin Banks Jr., OT, Texas
The Lions’ biggest need is edge, and it also wouldn’t shock me should Brad Holmes try to get younger at receiver — Jameson Williams’ long-term future on the roster is anything but certain. But Detroit also has uncertainty at guard. Banks, a college tackle, should translate well to a guard spot in the NFL and could potentially be a long-term answer opposite Sewell.
29. Washington Commanders: Matthew Golden, WR, Texas
Of all the draft-eligible offensive talent at Texas last season, Golden might’ve made the biggest leap. He displayed true difference-making speed and has an ability to win in any area of the field. He flashed WR1 ability, to go along with his 4.29 speed.
30. Buffalo Bills: Kenneth Grant, DT, Michigan
Grant’s talent (at 6-4, 331) is undeniable, but almost nothing about his game is consistent. He also did not test anywhere near where scouts anticipated he would. Still, he’s an explosive, powerful presence with high-end potential as a nose and/or a big 3-tech. There’s enough raw ability here to bet on.
31. Kansas City Chiefs: Donovan Jackson, G/OT, Ohio State
A balanced, explosive athlete with very good length, Jackson spent most of his Ohio State career at guard before moving out to tackle in the wake of Simmons’ injury — a critical move during Ohio State’s title run. Jackson can be inconsistent with his hands but has the look of a possible long-term starter at guard or tackle.
32. Philadelphia Eagles: Malaki Starks, S, Georgia
One of the smartest football players in this draft, Starks feels a lot like this year’s version of Brian Branch. He’s probably not fast enough to hold up as an outside corner, but he can play either safety spot or be a capable NFL nickel. He and Cooper DeJean together would be a lot of fun.
Round 2
33. Cleveland Browns: Tyler Shough, QB, Louisville
This, to me, makes much more sense for the Browns than reaching for a QB at No. 2. It’s possible Cleveland will have to trade back into the bottom of the first round for either Shough or Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart, but this would give the Browns a young quarterback and a premium talent at the top of the second.
34. New York Giants: Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss
Personally, I prefer Shough to Dart but it’s very close. Dart’s biggest challenge will be proving he wasn’t simply a product of a very college-y offense the way ex-Ole Miss QB Matt Corral was. However, Dart’s a better prospect in just about every area. To me: Shough and Dart are closer to Sanders on the board than Sanders is to Ward.
35. Tennessee Titans: Luther Burden III, WR, Missouri
36. Jacksonville Jaguars: Walter Nolen, DT, Ole Miss
37. Las Vegas Raiders: Carson Schwesinger, LB, UCLA
UCLA LB Carson Schwesinger (projected top-50 pick) weighed in at 238 pounds at his workout today for NFL teams. From an NFL scout in attendance:
3C: 7.05
SS: 4.25
BJ: 10’7″
(No 40-yard dash)— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) April 2, 2025
38. New England Patriots: Aireontae Ersery, OT, Minnesota
39. Chicago Bears (from CAR): Kaleb Johnson, RB, Iowa
40. New Orleans Saints: Shavon Revel Jr., CB, East Carolina
41. Chicago Bears: Darius Alexander, DT, Toledo
42. New York Jets: Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
If there’s a QB other than Ward or Sanders who might surprise people with how high he’s picked, it’s Milroe. Every physical trait he owns is worth betting on, though the gamble here is considerable given how inconsistent he was as a passer during every season at Alabama.
43. San Francisco 49ers: Tyleik Williams, DT, Ohio State
44. Dallas Cowboys: Quinshon Judkins, RB, Ohio State
45. Indianapolis Colts: Demetrius Knight Jr., LB, South Carolina
GO DEEPER
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46. Atlanta Falcons: Benjamin Morrison, CB, Notre Dame
47. Arizona Cardinals: James Pearce Jr., edge, Tennessee
48. Miami Dolphins: Shemar Turner, DT, Texas A&M
49. Cincinnati Bengals: Tate Ratledge, G/C, Georgia
50. Seattle Seahawks: Jaylin Noel, WR, Iowa State
51. Denver Broncos: TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Ohio State
52. Seattle Seahawks (from PIT): Maxwell Hairston, CB, Kentucky
53. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Nic Scourton, edge, Texas A&M
54. Green Bay Packers: Jayden Higgins, WR, Iowa State
55. Los Angeles Chargers: Mason Taylor, TE, LSU
I’m not ruling out the possibility of someone at the bottom of the first taking a swing at Taylor, the athletic, sure-handed son Pro Football Hall of Famer Jason Taylor (and nephew of Zach Thomas). Few coaches in the NFL have better eyes for TE talent than Jim Harbaugh.
#LSU TE Mason Taylor
Garrett Nussmeier is going to miss him quite a bit.
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— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 7:29 AM
56. Buffalo Bills (from MIN): Azareye’h Thomas, CB, Florida State
57. Carolina Panthers (from LAR): Kevin Winston Jr., S, Penn State
58. Houston Texans: T.J. Sanders, DT, South Carolina
59. Baltimore Ravens: Omarr Norman-Lott, DT, Tennessee
60. Detroit Lions: JT Tuimoloau, edge, Ohio State
61. Washington Commanders: Darien Porter, CB, Iowa State
62. Buffalo Bills: Jack Bech, WR, TCU
63. Kansas City Chiefs: Dylan Sampson, RB, Tennessee
64. Philadelphia Eagles: Jordan Burch, edge, Oregon
Round 3
65. New York Giants: Landon Jackson, edge, Arkansas
66. Kansas City Chiefs (from TEN): Jack Sawyer, edge, Ohio State
67. Cleveland Browns: Ozzy Trapilo, OT, Boston College
68. Las Vegas Raiders: Tre Harris, WR, Ole Miss
69. New England Patriots: Quincy Riley, CB, Louisville
GO DEEPER
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70. Jacksonville Jaguars: Oluwafemi Oladejo, edge, UCLA
71. New Orleans Saints: Joshua Farmer, DT, Florida State
72. Chicago Bears: Danny Stutsman, LB, Oklahoma
73. New York Jets: Jalen Royals, WR, Utah State
74. Carolina Panthers: Kyle Kennard, edge, South Carolina
75. San Francisco 49ers: Cameron Williams, OT, Texas
76. Dallas Cowboys: Kyle Williams, WR, Washington State
One of the more underrated players in this class, Williams is a small receiver, and his hands could be more consistent — but he’s one of the best YAC players in the class and an outstanding route runner with the ball skills to win in any area on the field. Very exciting player.
#Wazzu WR Kyle Williams is a problem.
He’s not big, could be more consistent with hands, but he’s one of the smoothest route runners in the country.
🏈4.42 speed
🏈10 contested catches at just 5-10, 190
🏈70-1196-14 last season
🏈Nearly 600 YAC yardsThis is a top 100 player IMO
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— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 9:34 AM
77. New England Patriots (from ATL): Elic Ayomanor, WR, Stanford
78. Arizona Cardinals: Anthony Belton, OT, NC State
79. Houston Texans (from MIA): Jared Wilson, C, Georgia
80. Indianapolis Colts: Marcus Mbow, G/OT, Purdue
81. Cincinnati Bengals: Xavier Watts, S, Notre Dame
82. Seattle Seahawks: Elijah Arroyo, TE, Miami
83. Pittsburgh Steelers: Alfred Collins, DT, Texas
84. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Andrew Mukuba, S, Texas
85. Denver Broncos: Terrance Ferguson, TE, Oregon
86. Los Angeles Chargers: Jonah Savaiinaea, G/OT, Arizona
87. Green Bay Packers: Jordan Phillips, DT, Maryland
88. Jacksonville Jaguars (from MIN): Trey Amos, CB, Ole Miss
89. Houston Texans: Tai Felton, WR, Maryland
90. Los Angeles Rams: Harold Fannin Jr., TE, Bowling Green
91. Baltimore Ravens: Jacob Parrish, CB, Kansas State
92. Seattle Seahawks (from DET): Charles Grant, OT, William & Mary
93. New Orleans Saints (from WAS): Isaiah Bond, WR, Texas
94. Cleveland Browns (from BUF): Jaydon Blue, RB, Texas
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95. Kansas City Chiefs: Vernon Broughton, DT, Texas
96. Philadelphia Eagles: Miles Frazier, G, LSU
97. Minnesota Vikings*: Deone Walker, DT, Kentucky
98. Miami Dolphins*: Emery Jones Jr., OT, LSU
99. New York Giants*: Jackson Slater, G/OT, Sacramento State
100. San Francisco 49ers*: Princely Umanmielen, edge, Ole Miss
101. Los Angeles Rams*: Savion Williams, WR, TCU
102. Detroit Lions*: Josaiah Stewart, edge, Michigan
The Lions double-dipped at CB last season, and don’t be surprised if they do the same this year while searching for pass-rush help opposite Aidan Hutchinson. Bringing an Ohio State (Tuimoloau) or Michigan (Stewart) player to Detroit always makes for a good time. These two would complement each other well.
(* = compensatory pick)
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Michael Miller / ISI Photos, Ed Zurga / Getty Images, Mark J. Rebilas and Rich Barnes / Imagn Images)
The result has been a terrible irony for a country that was founded as a refuge from intolerance: “How is it that the appeal to humanitarianism, tolerance, the rule of law and protection of minorities that characterized the beginning of Jewish self-emancipation gradually acquired all the traits of the relentless, remorseless and increasingly racist ethnonationalisms from which Zionism sought to liberate European Jewry?”
To answer this painful question, Bartov uses all the tools at his disposal, weaving together history, personal anecdotes, even some literary criticism, including a close reading of a poem — by Hayim Nahman Bialik and known to “every Israeli schoolchild” — about the perils of vengeance that has been misinterpreted and warped for political ends. Bartov writes unsparingly about Hamas’s murderous attacks, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 250 others taken hostage, which he calls an unequivocal “war crime and a crime against humanity.” It was a “slaughter of innocents” that “evoked collective memories of massacres and the Holocaust.”
Indeed, in a May 2024 poll of Israelis that he cites, more than half of the respondents said Oct. 7 could be compared to the Holocaust, and the Israeli media repeatedly depicted the massacre as a pogrom. Bartov understands why — for traumatized people, new traumas will revive old ones — but he maintains that the label is a category mistake. Israel is a state; it has an army, laws and government. A pogrom “is a mob attack, condoned or supported by the state authorities, against a minority lacking any attributes of a state.” (“To be sure,” he adds, “pogroms have occurred within the territories controlled by Israel, but when they take place, they were and are being carried out, with increasing frequency and ferocity, by settlers in the West Bank.”)
Israel doesn’t have a constitution. After its founding, its government was supposed to codify the protection of religious freedom and minority rights, but efforts to adopt a constitution were waylaid and arguably thwarted by political figures like David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister. Bartov believes that a constitution could have made Zionism “superfluous” after it succeeded in establishing a state that could be a refuge for Jews. Citizens could have turned toward the task of building a “just society” that aimed at “peace, truth and reconciliation with the Palestinians.”
This sounds nice, if fanciful; constitutions don’t magically prevent authoritarianism. Not to mention that attacks by surrounding Arab states did nothing to alleviate Israelis’ sense that they were constantly embattled.
Now that we’ve memorized the first half of our poem, let’s learn a little more about the man who wrote it. (Haven’t memorized anything yet? Click here to start at the beginning.)
For most of his life, Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-73) was a star. He was widely read, quoted, argued over and gossiped about, achieving a level of fame that few writers now — and not many then — could contemplate. His New York Times obituary did not hesitate to call him “the foremost poet of his generation.”
Celebrity of that kind is ephemeral, but Auden’s words have continued to circulate in the half century since his death. Maybe you’ve heard some of them before. In the 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” his poem “Funeral Blues” is recited by Matthew (John Hannah) over the casket of his lover, Gareth (Simon Callow).
In the Gen-X touchstone “Before Sunrise” (1995), Jesse (Ethan Hawke) regales Celine (Julie Delpy) with an impression of Dylan Thomas reading Auden’s “As I Walked Out One Evening.”
In both these scenes, the characters use Auden’s poetry to give voice to a longing for which they otherwise might not have words. Auden’s poetry is often useful in that way. It speaks to recognizable human occasions, and it isn’t always all about him.
“The More Loving One” might not be something you’d quote at a funeral or on a date, but it is almost effortlessly quotable — the perfect expression of a thought you never knew you had:
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Ken Burns, filmmaker
The word “I” occurs five times in this stanza, but we don’t know much about the person speaking. His personality is camouflaged and revealed by craft.
Auden, born in the northern English cathedral city of York, began practicing that craft as a schoolboy, and honed it at Oxford. Not long after graduating in 1928, he was anointed by critics and readers as the great hope of modern English poetry. A charismatic, divisive figure, he gathered acolytes, imitators and haters.
He swam in the intellectual and ideological crosscurrents of the 1930s, drawing Marxism, psychoanalysis and mystical nationalism into his writing. Assimilating a daunting array of literary influences — Old English and Ancient Greek, French chansons and Icelandic sagas — he forged a poetic personality that was bold, confiding and seductive.
His love poems of that era were candid, discreet dispatches from a calendar of feverish entanglements, wrenching breakups and one-night stands, usually with other men. He also wrote about the feverish politics of the time — class conflict; the rise of fascism; the Spanish Civil War — in ringing rhetoric he later disavowed.
In 1939 Auden moved to America, acquiring U.S. citizenship after World War II. In New York he fell in love with Chester Kallman, a young American writer who became his life partner.
It was a complicated relationship, starting as a passionate affair and enduring through decades of domestic companionship and creative collaboration. Kallman’s refusal to be sexually exclusive wounded Auden, a dynamic that poignantly shades this poem’s most memorable couplet:
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Yiyun Li, writer
In America, Auden distanced himself from the radical politics of his earlier career and embraced Anglican Christianity. His intellectual preoccupations shifted toward religion and existentialism — to the kinds of big questions we think about late at night, or when we look to the sky.
Making the leap from wunderkind to grand old man without seeming to stop in middle age, he became a mentor for several generations of younger poets. He was a prolific and punctual contributor of reviews and essays to various publications, including this one, for which he wrote a rave of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” in 1954.
Through it all, Auden devoted fanatical attention to the finer points of poetic technique. His notebooks are full of numbers, word lists and markings that show just how deep this commitment went. He counted every syllable, measured every stress.
He gathered rhymes and other words with a lexicographer’s zeal and a crossword puzzler’s precision.
The third stanza of “The More Loving One” is a miniature showcase of Auden’s skill. Of the four epigrams arrayed before us, it may be the most technically perfect.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
W.H. Auden, poet
The rhythm is flawless, without an extra syllable or an accent out of place. The grammar is also fastidious. Here is a single sentence, springloaded with equivocation, beginning with one idea and sliding toward its opposite.
This quatrain is the poem’s ideal formal representation of itself, a kind of proof of concept: four lines of impeccable iambic tetrameter in an AABB rhyme scheme. The by-the-book regularity of this stanza should give you a leg up in memorizing it, and you can test yourself below!
But the rest of the poem is an argument against perfection, just as it is a celebration of uncertainty and humility — as we’ll see tomorrow.
Play a game to learn it by heart. Need more practice? Listen to Ada Limón, Matthew McConaughey, W.H. Auden and others recite our poem.
Question 1/6
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank.Your first task: Learn the first two lines!
Let’s start with the first couplet in this stanza. Fill in the rhyming words.
Ready for another round? Try your hand at the 2025 Poetry Challenge.
Edited by Gregory Cowles, Alicia DeSantis and Nick Donofrio. Additional editing by Emily Eakin,
Joumana Khatib, Emma Lumeij and Miguel Salazar. Design and development by Umi Syam. Additional
game design by Eden Weingart. Video editing by Meg Felling. Photo editing by Erica Ackerberg.
Illustration art direction by Tala Safie.
Illustrations by Daniel Barreto.
Text and audio recording of “The More Loving One,” by W.H. Auden, copyright © by the Estate of
W.H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Photograph accompanying Auden recording
from Imagno/Getty Images.
PERMANENCE, by Sophie Mackintosh
Sophie Mackintosh’s novels are always speculative in some way, with either the author or her characters forging a world governed by its own logic and rules. In their boldness and their ability to convey the violence of patriarchy, they recall the work of Jacqueline Harpman — not only the cherished “I Who Have Never Known Men,” but also “Orlanda,” her wild riff on Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando.”
Like Harpman, Mackintosh has a spare and confident hand. Her work is sometimes described as dreamlike; certainly, its contours are sketched with rapidity and confidence and relatively little detail. Her prose operates according to the same principle, at once lyrical and precise, like this from her second novel, “Blue Ticket”: “On the ground was a dead rabbit, disemboweled. Still fresh, the dark loops of its insides glistening like jam.”
When Mackintosh writes about masculine power, she does so in a way that articulates both its seductions and its terrors. Her newest novel, “Permanence,” is less explicitly concerned with the structure of patriarchy, but it has the same erotic charge as her earlier work, the same preoccupation with social prohibitions and the thrill that comes from breaking them.
Like “Blue Ticket,” “Permanence” turns on a highly pronounced binary. In “Blue Ticket,” adolescent girls are issued either a blue or white ticket on the day of their first period. A white ticket denotes a future of marriage and children, a blue ticket one of work — even, it seems, a career. The divide is stark and self-evidently faulty, its coarseness an expression of the brutalizing regime the characters are trapped in.
“Permanence” features a similar opposition, neatly delineated. Clara and Francis are conducting an illicit affair. One morning, they wake up in an alternate reality where they are openly living together. The novel shuttles between these two worlds, one ordinary and familiar, the other a curdled paradise for adulterers.
The thinness of this “city of impermanence” — “fluid, cohesive and yet disparate” — emerges at once. The sky is “uncannily blue,” the newspaper bears no date, the edge of the city is marked by “a slick ring of water, as far as the eye could see.”
Still, a boundary cannot keep the other world from seeping in. Initially, elegantly, this is a problem in the structure of desire. Having been provided the life they dreamed of, in which their longing for each other is fully met, Clara and Francis begin to experience, to their uneasy surprise, boredom and discontent.
Without absence, the intensity of their desire for each other wanes. They even begin, or at least Francis does, to long for the relief of their ordinary life: “Another day ahead of them of petting, giggling, lying around. It seemed insubstantial suddenly, though only the day before he had felt he could do it forever.”
Soon enough, it becomes clear that the problem between Francis and Clara doesn’t lie in the outside impediments of the world they live in, but in their relationship itself. Francis remains troublingly himself — a married father of a small child, reluctant to leave his family, however much he is in love with Clara: “He did love her, and he did want to be with her. … But he already had reality elsewhere, reality which he sometimes felt trapped by, he would admit, but which he could not truly imagine cutting loose.”
“Permanence” might seem like an outlier in the current array of articles and books about open marriages and polyamory, and at first glance the line of distinction between the two worlds, much like the division between blue and white tickets, seems almost old-fashioned. But as Mackintosh persuasively illustrates, the familiar emotions of jealousy, infatuation and eventually indifference — these persist and can flourish in any relationship, however free of prohibition.
“You want this,” Clara tells herself, and then, “You no longer want this,” as it occurs to her that “maybe it was in absence that they loved each other best, and most honestly.”
In her work, Mackintosh devises scenarios that are bold and almost aggressively simplified. But her terrain is complexity and contradiction, and in her hands these oppositions twist and turn in on themselves.
It’s hardly a surprise when the central character in “Blue Ticket” decides to eschew her designation and have a child, declaring, “True and false were no longer opposing binaries. My body was speaking to me in a language I had not heard before.” Nor is it especially startling when discontent chases Clara and Francis from one world to the other, unraveling their relationship.
What is more disquieting is the surreptitious ease with which Mackintosh’s speculative worlds start to align with our own, allowing the reader to see how so many of the old prohibitions and conventions — around choice, around marriage — remain, somehow, firmly in place.
That moment of recognition, in a landscape that is startlingly alien, is the source of Mackintosh’s power as a writer.
PERMANENCE | By Sophie Mackintosh | Avid Reader Press | 240 pp. | $28
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