Wystan Hugh Auden

The More Loving One
 
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.





 
 
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.





 
 
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.





 
 
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

Source:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15550

In this paper I am going to analyze one poem written by Wystan Hugh Auden, a poem named “The More Loving One”. This author is a World War One poet, and I think it is possible to find elements in that poem which show a relation to war.

         Starting with the title of this poem, “The more loving one”, the reader can think that the poet is going to talk about love, and a person who loves the most other person. During the poem, there is a verse which says who is the lover. It is in verse eight, where the poet writes:

“Let the more loving one be me”

So, the reader deduces that the person who is writing this poem is the main character, the first person who is writing this poem, as we can see in most of the verses, where we find the personal pronoun “I”. The poet not only is talking by himself, he includes other people when he says “WE”, verses four, five and six. But after reading the whole poem I realized that the poet is writing during the night or when daybreak is starting. The poet describes a sky full of stars, and a group of feelings he has at this moment, and then, in the last stanza, he is comparing the dawn with the death of the stars, as we see:

“Were all stars to disappear or die,

I should learn to look at an empty sky

And feel its total dark sublime,

Though this might take me a little time.”

         This poem consists of four stanzas, each of them having four verses. The syllables of the verses are irregular, though all of them have not less than eight syllables. The poem has a visual rhyme, and none of the stanzas have the same rhyme. It is AABB-CCDD-EEFF-GGHH: well-hell; least-beast; burn-return; be-me; am-damn; say-day; die-sky; sublime-time.

         After reading the biography of Auden, and knowing that he wrote during the war, we can interpret this poem as an illusion, his illusion that the war finishes soon, the sky was not full of the dark of bombs, that there was not steam in the air, and the sky was empty. This could be related as the end of a night, a dark sky full of stars that disappear when the day begins. And the poet compares this with the end of the war. He is comparing the stars with the bombs, I think, when he says in the third stanza:

“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.”

         This poem is too easy to read and understand, because it is written in a very simple vocabulary, and with a very simple structure. But it is necessary to read the biography of the poet, W. H. Auden, and know that he wrote this poem during the world war one to relate the comparisons of the poem with the war times, what happened and the hopes of the people who were suffering this was without being involved with the problems which made the war. So, if someone who has not suffered a war, or a situation like a war, cannot be reflected in the images of this poem. These people could see a man, maybe in a mountain, describing the situation. He staying with another person, and telling that night is finishing but yet not. And he wants the day to start, but it still is not possible until the end of the war.

         I think this is a good poem, which reflects the fears and hopes of the people who lived the war, and a poem that is not only referring to the First World War, but which can be related to any war, because of the description it has.

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Bibliography:

• “The More loving one”, Wystan Hugh Auden.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15550

2.May.2006

• POETS.org

POETS FROM THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS. Wystan Hugh Auden

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/120

2.May.2006

• WIKIPEDIA. THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auden

1.May.2006