Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written in a response of Thinking Activity, Which is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to analyze some poems of W. H. Auden. Before that, let me give some information about W. H. Auden.
About W.H.Auden :-
Full name of W.H.Auden is Wystan Huge Auden. He was a great British - American poet. Main themes of the Auden's poem is Politics, love, religion, morals etc. Also his poetry generally known for it's unique style, and technique. During his lifetime, Auden published more than four hundred poems, including seven long poems. And two if them was written in a length of a book. Along with poems he also wrote more than four hundred essays and reviews about literature, history, politics, music, religion and many more. His most famous works are,
1) Funeral Blues
2) September 1, 1939
3) The Shield of Achilles
4) The Age of Anxiety
5) For the time being
6) Horae Canonicae
Here is some videos about Auden,
1) Auden's poem seems to be written in our times for 2022. Justify this in context of pendemic and Russia - Ukraine war.
Here, i am going to analyze three poems of Auden, as a pendemic poem.
1) September 1 1939
2) In Memory of W. B. Yeats
3) Epitaph on a Tyrant
1) September 1 1939
The poem is remembering history of September 1, 1939. Setting of the poem is in a bar of New York City. The poem Coveys the poet's emotional response to the outbreak of Worldwar two. Poem talks about German's attack on Poland. Though it is a War poem, we are also able to see it as pendemic poem.
In the first stanza we find the lines like,
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hope expire,
Of a low dishonest decades:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentioned oduour of death.
This we can connect with pendemic, that during pendemic time, we see that situation is also become like this, people are quarantine during the corona time. They wasn't allowed to go out, to meet their friends, family and closeones. And so that they are afraid, they are frustrated, they lost their hopes, and they were looking the decade as a full of chaos and dishonest. Many of the people loose their jobs, their business, poor people were suffering by starvation, and so their starvation came out as a Waves of anger. Along with this, we saw that many of the people were died during the corona time as well as Spanish flu or plague. Which is reflected through the lines, "The unmentionable odour of death". Numerous people were died and no one was there to count or to care. No one was there to cremate people.even government gave false report of death in corona which later proved in high court. Here is the news of that. (Click here)
Here is some videos of people in frustration, and in anger during Covid time.
Then in second stanza we find lines like,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit - forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief :
We must suffer them all again.
This lines are also connected with Corona time as we see during the corona, mainly we were in quarantine. And so that many of our habits get changed. Which is not so easy thing. And it formed pain, mismanagement and grief. So this reference we find here. Here is one article, which talk about this situation.(Click here)
Here is one video also which again reflect my point. Along with that, some of the paintings which is related with corona time.
Then in next lines,
Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
In this lines we find similarity between poland - German war and Ukraine - Russia war. As here mentioned that what dictators do and leaders talk about democracy is all rubbish thing. Similarly now a day Putin, prime minister of the Russia, talk about democracy and behind the curtain of democracy he is constantly attacking over Ukraine and destroying it. That's why people use to consider him as a Adolf Putin. Means Adolf Hitler ± Vladimir Putin = Adolf Putin
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Here we are able to connect this with Russia - Ukraine war, that authority for their own selfishness, sacrifice lifes of so many soldiers as well as public. We find that the authority is not fighting themselves. They are the soldiers who are fighting for the nation. And what authority doing is just giving orders from their building which grope the sky. And that is something problematic. So, this is something which i find from the poem about pendemic and similarity of poem and Russia - Ukraine war.
2) In Memory of W. B. Yeats
Section one :-
In the section one, poet display the situation after the death of W. B. Yeats. He wrote that the day of his death "was a dark cold day". He also wrote that, the things happening as it is. Nothing could change in world. As he wrote that,
Far from his illness
The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,
The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;
By mourning tongues
The death of the poet was kept from his poems.
This lines shows that, nothing could change. But for poet it was his last afternoon as himself. He was died but his poems keep them alive. Not physically, but in the memory of his readers, in the criticism done by critics on his life and poetry.
The words of a dead man
Are modified in the guts of the living.
He got no appreciation for his life. But A few thousand will think of this day, means few thousands are remember the day of his death as a special day.
The poem is about a death of particular one poet, but we find that many writers and poets were died due to corona. Though they were died, people still remember them, remember their lives by their works just like W. B. Yeats. People used to talk about them, critics criticises their works as well as their lives. Just one difference is people are not celebrating his death as a public holiday. During Covid - 19, many of the writers were died but very few people were know them. Here is the articles about writers and poets who were died due to corona, click on that to read.
In this part poet also mentioned that, even though yeats died, he still living in the memory of readers of his poems, critics of his poetry. We find that some poets become immortal for their contributions,like there is one poet named U Soso Tham, whose anniversary, people still celebrate as a public holiday in Meghalaya. read the article given here, Click here
Second section :-
In this part Auden consider Yeats as a silly, just like other people in the world. And says that his poetry make no changes, as he wrote,
For poetry makes nothing happen:
This we can directly connect with corona. As we know that after the world war one and two, numerous poets and writers wrote about disaster, damages, Harmfulness, people's suffering, pain, Chaos, Injustice.. Etc...Etc.. Etc... The poets and writers like 1) Wilfred Owen, 2) John McCrae, 3) Alan Seeger, 4) Veera Britain, 5) Rupert Brooke and many eles wrote about the topics mentioned above. Also we find lots of war poems which reflect the tone i have mentioned above, poems like, 1)War Baby by Pamela Holmes, 2) We Are Not Blessed by Nikolay Mayorov, 3) The Day's March by Robert Nichols..etc. In this all poems and the writers i have mentioned they all are wrote about war and it's disadvantages but still we see that, war between Russia and Ukraine take place. It means somewhere literature is lacking, people, authority are not reading or we can say not understanding it. That's why constantly history will repeating itself.
Section Three :-
In the final section poet wrote about condition of his society. World war one was just ended and people were not came out of it's effect and though world war two he was on the way. And the condition is very pitiful. As poet wrote that,
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
This condition, is also reflected in today's time. As we see, the entire world was suffered by Pendemic / Corona time for three years constantly. Till 2019 to 2021, and we see that now in 2022, situation seems to get normal back. People are still not came out of pendemic effect and in one corner of world start war. Yes, it is Russia and Ukraine who are fighting. And if the fighting will not get over soon then it is possible that world war three may get start. So again people are in fear, no one knows that what will happen by very next moment.
So this are some of the major similarities i have find from this poem.
3) Epitaph on a Tyrant
The poem Epitaph on a Tyrant is particularly satire, written on Adolf Hitler. It is very short six line's poem. The poem starts with the line,
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
In this we find a picture of Utopian world. Words like perfection, easy to understand. This all are reflecting utopian idea. Which we can connect with Vladimir Putin as he is also constantly talking about Utopian,ideal world. In the case of Russia - Ukraine war. He gave reason that most of the people of Ukraine, are Russians and they asked us for help and so that, we are attacking on Ukraine to save them, to liberate them, it is a virtual step. Here is a video as a proof what i have written.
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
Here, we see that Tyrone like armies and fleets, which reflects cruelty and Battle adoring nature. Which again remind us Vladimir Putin. How he choose war instead of Peace. And then the last two lines,
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
Here, direct meaning of first line is very positive that, Tyrone wants to make their senators happy, but if we see, we find one hidden meaning. That there is a feeling of compulsion. Burst with laughter is a sign of artificial, loud laughter. Then in second line we find reference of religion. The line is connected with New Testament, ‘But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven'. For Jesus, the Ideal kingdom are those, who are not forbid people about religion and are not forbid their religious beliefs. Similar thing we find that Vladimir Putin is strongly believe in Christianity. And the Russia - Ukraine war is somewhere resulted for religion too. Here is the video which talks about that.
This is my understanding about all the three poems with the reference of pendemic / Corona situation and Russia - Ukraine war. It is very difficult for me to relate poems with Russia - Ukraine war. Because i was not habituated to read newspaper and to watch news in television. Though i have searched as much as i could. And try to make blog. {I will soon put link of another question, queer study of theme of lack of acceptance of homosexuality in society.} I hope my blog will be helpful to you! If you find some more points about anything related my blog, then write it in comment section. It will help me to expand my vision and will increase quality of my blog. Also if you have any interesting ideas to make blog more knowledgeable, then type in comment section. Thank you!
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