Auden's poem

Hello friends,

In this blog I want to talk about W. H. Auden and his poems.  Waystan Hugh Auden was born on February 21, 1907 in York, England.  As a young man he was influenced by the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as William Black, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Mardley Hopkins and Old English Verses.  His collection of poems was published privately in 1928, but it was not until 1930, when another collection of poems was published that Auden founded a new pay generation. 

Basically Auden has a lot of collection of poems, but we are concerned with his these three poems.

•  September 1, 1939

•  In memory of WB Yates

•  Epitaph on a tyrant

So let’s discuss these poems related to activity questions

*Which lines of September 1, 1939 do you like the most?  Why ?

W. H. Auden's "September 1, 1939" collection of poets was first published in the October 18, 1939 edition of The New Republic, before being included in Under Time.  Written on the outbreak of World War ||  The poem is full of feelings of fear and uncertainty in the face of fascism and war, as well as the ambiguity of optimism that people can come together to confront dictatorship.  It is one of the greatest poems of the 20th century, ironically, however, the poet himself grew up.  Although his poems are scattered, 'September 1, 1939' is a text on which people change in times of crisis, including the famous after September 11, 2001.

I like these line of poetry,

 There is no universal love

 But to love alone.

This art of poetry refers to the love story of Nijinsky and Diagelev.  Nijinsky was remembered as a god like God.  She will dance like a girl!  Whereas, Diagilev himself has remained a mystery.  They both work together and they can be seen as lovers.  But things change when Nijinsky goes to marry Romola de Pulsky.  This has caused a lot of damage to Diagelev.  He then started beating up Nijinsky and even tried to destroy Nijinsky's life and career.  Nijinsky then began writing diaries.  So here in this verse he is referring to it.  Here in these lines the speaker wants to say about the meaningless propaganda championed by so-called Important People is not nearly as indecent as our own desires.  What the ballet dancer Nijinsky wrote about his lover Diaghilev is true for everyone.The fundamental human flaw is that we all want what we cannot have: love for ourselves and ourselves only, rather than universal love that benefits everyone.

We are so selfish. Man and woman all have desire for what they haven't. They not setisfied with what they have. We first sees our benefit, then others. Now days people are also do something for only themselves. If there is happening something bad with somebody, people think that it's their problem, not ours ! there is fine poem which I want to recite here,

First they came for socialist 

And I did not speak out 

Because I was not socialist

Then they came for trade unianist

And u did not speak our

Because I was not trade unianist

Then they came for the Jues

And I did not speak out

Because I was not Jue

Then they came for me

Then there was no one left to speak for me !!!

Thus, the poem indicates selfishness of people. As we know that, people's love is not for all but it's only for themselves and some for their family members and relatives, with whom they wanted to be loved.

* What's so special about 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats'?

‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ by W. H. Auden (1907-73) was written in 1939, following the death of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats in January of that year. As well as being an elegy for the dead poet, ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ is also a meditation on the role and place of poetry in the modern world. The another thing about poem is Auden honors two traditions here: Yeats and the elegy and he tries to move the latter toward something new, expanded.  At traditional English ode is "typically a lyrical verse written in praise of, or dedicated to someone or something which captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration for the ode."

Auden says that Yeats' art lives on, as if it is an autonomous, living thing now detached from its host. According to Norton anthology :

"Poems about death tend to be concerned not just with loss, but also with what remains after a man or a woman dies. Elizabethan sonnets, like those of Spenser or Shakespeare, often take this idea of something persisting after death and use it in the context of an imagined dialogue between lovers, rather than in relation to an actual death: the lover promises his beloved that even though she must die, she will live on forever in his verses. In the elegy, that living-on after death may be thought of in religious terms, or perhaps in terms of cherished memory, or it may make itself felt by changing those who remain, transforming despair into the resolve to go on with life. This last possibility is what Tennyson's poem, "Ulysses," is all about."

Auden's poem draws on all these traditions as it focuses just on that moment when the words of a poet must begin to live on after his death. The poem which Auden writes is the first step in preserving Yeats the poet. But most important, Auden understands this process of poetic after life as taking place entirely within history.

* Is there any contemporary relevance of 'Epitaph on tyrant'?

‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ is one of Auden’s short masterpieces. In just six lines, W. H. Auden (1907-73) manages to say so much about the nature of tyranny. W. H. Auden spent some time in Berlin during the 1930s, and it was here that he probably wrote ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’, which was published in 1939, the year that the Second World War broke out. The specific tyrant Auden had in mind, then, was probably Adolf Hitler, though the poem can be analysed as a study in tyranny more generally, too. 

In today's time we can find many tyrant like Hitler. In politics there are many leaders who sees themselves as psychopathic god ! If we talk about the previous, (45th) president of America, Donald Trump was also fit in this catagory of tyrant. He uses many ways of political violence in US.  

If we compare Hitler and Donald Trump we can see that, Both were masters of mass communication. Hitler mastered beer hall oration, then newspapers, and then the new medium of radio. Donald Trump mastered television and then was one of the first leaders to master Twitter and other social media. Adolf Hitler had Asperger’s, with poor social skills, singular obsessions with conspiracy theories, and an intolerance of anyone who disagreed with him. His deepest need was to be seen as a genius. Donald Trump has narcissism, with odd social skills, belief in conspiracy theories, and an intolerance of people who disagree with him. His deepest need is for admiration and support of his grandiose sense of self-importance. So we can say that Trump is called tyrant.

Thank you.