diff -r 89b738e3d0c9 Lib/poplib.py
--- a/Lib/poplib.py	Thu Jan 23 09:49:42 2014 +0200
+++ b/Lib/poplib.py	Thu Jan 23 10:58:13 2014 +0100
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@
             UIDL [msg]              uidl(msg = None)
             CAPA                    capa()
             STLS                    stls()
+            AUTH                    auth(mech, secret = None)
 
     Raises one exception: 'error_proto'.
 
@@ -394,6 +395,22 @@
         self._tls_established = True
         return resp
 
+    def auth(self, mech, secret=None):
+        """
+        SASL Authentication. 
+
+        Supported if capa() returns a SASL tag (e.g. SASL PLAIN).
+
+        Args:
+                mech   - authentication mechanism
+                secret - authentication secret
+        """
+        if secret is None:
+            resp = self._longcmd('AUTH %s' % mech)
+        else:
+            resp = self._shortcmd('AUTH %s %s' % (mech, secret))
+        return resp
+
 
 if HAVE_SSL: