Being and Time raises the problem of "authenticity," that is, the potentiality or otherwise for mortal "Dasein" to exist "fully" enough that it might actually understand being. Heidegger is clear throughout the book that nothing makes certain that "Dasein" is capable of this understanding. Finally, this question of the authenticity of individual "Dasein" cannot be separated from the "historicality" of "Dasein". On the one hand, "Dasein", as mortal, is "stretched along" between birth and death, and thrown into its world, that is, thrown into its "possibilities", possibilities which "Dasein" is charged with the task of assuming. On the other hand, "Dasein's" access to
For the Time Being in the contemporary world. Auden wrote the poem to be set to music by Benjamin Britten, but it was far too long for this purpose, and Britten set only two fragments, including one ("Shepherd's Carol") that Auden dropped before the work was published. The poem is dedicated to the memory of Auden's mother, Constance Rosalie Bicknell Auden. For the Time Being "For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio", is a long poem by W. H. Auden, written 1941-42, and first published in 1944. It was one of two long poems included in Auden's book also titled For the Time Being,