W.H. AUDEN

Wystan Hugh Auden (1907 – 1973) was an influential English poet of the 20 th century. He was born in York , England . Son of Dr. George Augustus Auden and Constance Rosalie Bicknell Auden. Both of Auden's grandfathers were Church of England clergymen; the Auden family was Anglo-Catholic in its religious life ( high form of Anglicanism and a ritual similar to that of Roman Catholicism). He was homoexual. He formed lifelong friendships with two fellow writers, Stephen Spender and Christopher Isherwood. In 1928, Auden published his first book of verse, and his collection Poem s ( 1930), that established him as the leading voice of a new generation. He has been admired for his ability on writing poems. In his works he incorporates popular culture, current events and vernacular speech. In 1939 he moved to the United States , where he met his lover, Chester Kallman, and became an American citizen. His own beliefs changed: when he was in England he believed in the Freudian psychoanalysis and on socialism, and his later phase in America , his central preoccupation became Christianity and the theology of modern Protestant theologians. Considered the greatest English poet of the twentieth century. He died in Viena in 1973.

We're going to analize one of Auden's poems called September 1, 1939. As I've said before, most of Auden's poems deal with current events, and this poem is a perfect example of it. In September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland , and with this started the World War II ( year in which Auden moved to the United States ). Along the poem he also mentions real personalities.

September 1, 1939

I sit in one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth,

Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odour of death

Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can

Unearth the whole offence

From Luther until now

That has driven a culture mad,

Find what occurred at Linz ,

What huge imago made

A psychopathic god:

I and the public know

What all schoolchildren learn,

Those to whom evil is done

Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew

All that a speech can say

About Democracy,

And what dictators do,

The elderly rubbish they talk

To an apathetic grave;

Analysed all in his book,

The enlightenment driven away,

The habit-forming pain,

Mismanagement and grief:

We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air

Where blind skyscrapers use

Their full height to proclaim

The strength of Collective Man,

Each language pours its vain

Competitive excuse:

But who can live for long

In an euphoric dream;

Out of the mirror they stare,

Imperialism's face

And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar

Cling to their average day:

The lights must never go out,

The music must always play,

All the conventions conspire

To make this fort assume

The furniture of home;

Lest we should see where we are,

Lost in a haunted wood,

Children afraid of the night

Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash

Important Persons shout

Is not so crude as our wish:

What mad Nijinsky wrote

About Diaghilev

Is true of the normal heart;

For the error bred in the bone

Of each woman and each man

Craves what it cannot have,

Not universal love

But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark

Into the ethical life

The dense commuters come,

Repeating their morning vow;

"I will be true to the wife,

I'll concentrate more on my work,"

And helpless governors wake

To resume their compulsory game:

Who can release them now,

Who can reach the deaf,

Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice

To undo the folded lie,

The romantic lie in the brain

Of the sensual man-in-the-street

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.

Defenceless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.

The poem is organized in nine stanzas formed at the same time by eleven verses each one of them.

On the first Stanza Auden describes the situation during the begginings of the war. He uses negative terms to enphasize his opposition to the war. Ex. .. dishonest decade, waves of anger and fear, ... darkened lands.., ... odour of death , etc.

In the second stanza Auden scorns God refering to him as A psychopathic god . He is telling us that God has a mental disease because of all the violence happenning all arround the world. Using The word god without capital letters also denotes a high degree of despise. Auden's life can be divided in two parts, until 1939 he lived in England and then he went to America . While living in Europe he believed in Freudian Psychoanalisis, and in America his beliefs changed, his central preoccupation was Christianity and the theology of the modern Protestant theologians. The poem shows us a rejection of God, and it was the year 1939 ( year when Auden moved to America ), what maybe means that he had recently arrived to America , or maybe he was still in Europe , but not for much longer.

Along all the poem he names several personalities which form part of our history, for instance, Luther, Thucydides, Nijinsky, etc.

He also criticizes dictators ( 3 rd stanza) saying things like; The elderly rubbish they talk, The habit-forming pain, We must suffer them all again .. He shows us how people feels under the command of these dictators, lost in a haunted wood, children afraid of the night, etc. (5 th stanza).

He denotes an opposion to the conservative side refering to it saying ... From the conservative dark... (7 th stanza)

In the 8 th stanza Auden makes reference t himself, All I have is a voice, To undo the folded lie... Authority is constantly lying, and the only thing that Auden can do is reveal this lies throug his poems.

Defenceless under the night, Our world in stupor lies ... This verses appear in the last stanza, is just the way he and all the people feels because of the war.