About W.H. AUDEN
Wystan Hugh Auden was born on 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973 his poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form, and content. Some of his best known poems are about love, such as "Funeral Blues''; on political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles''; on cultural and psychological themes, such as The Age of Anxiety; and on religious themes such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae.
POEM:SEPT 1,1939
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.
In this poem Sept 1 1939 as the title shows a date so it is extraordinary that the title of the poem is date. The poem I read as a outbreak of the world War 1 as we see today is also similar kind of situation as we read in the news about war between Russia and Ukraine, so in this time the poem revisiting by the many readers because there are similar thing in that time and in present time also.
If we so in context of war it is to be seen that in that time the dictator like hitler who is democratically elected in today's time we can compare dictator like valmidir putin and the Ukraine the dictator like jablonsky both are elected democratically. As the dictator said to his people the people are ready to do anything like when Putin declares a war neither any soldier nor any people raise a voice against him.
Here the speaker said that it was a dishonest decade so it is compared In today's time also as we live among the war atmosphere so this time also can be considered dishonest decade .
Here speaker also said that it was the time when anger and fear also there so a it Is seen in today's context that on the on side there Is angry people of Ukraine and they were also in fear as jealonsky request putin about they were need of the treaty because many innocent ukraine were in fear and also many were in anger as it I shown in below.
As Auden mentioned IN poem that war obsessed private lives also so this is same kind of situation in now a days so many innocent people are died in this war war is also affect to students private lives also as we all know that many students are trapped among the war atmosphere on the other side it can be argued that in that war of Russia & Ukraine students are very innocent because they all are neither from Russia nor from Ukraine they all students are from another country so as the poet say war can disturb life of innocent people.
In the next stanza there is reference to Martin Luther King who was a German professor of theology. He was known for reformation in religion. Here the poet also used the word LINZ so this word Is a symbol of the birth place of hitler.
Here poet also used the word thucydides so a thucydides is a 5th century B.C.athenian historian who known for his work history of peloponnesian war which I fought between republican & spa in the next line speaker says about nature of dictator that the speech of dictators are never being right what they say and what they do are quite paradoxical thing as it is seen in the modern times movie. From their talk it can be seen that the people of the country must have suffered all the things again as the people of Russia and Ukraine are suffering the pain because of their dictators.
Here speaker said about the neutral air as it is seen in world War 1 that there Is america Who stay neutral in the atmosphere of war in the nowadays india was also neutral in the situation of war as Ukraine request India to interfere in war for the peace but india remain neutral in this situation, so it can be also argue that India remain neutral it means that India is in side of Russia it is big question I nowadays and it can be said as an international wrong also.In this situation india is also need to come out from individualism also, if you aren't came out from this idea,of individualism it means it is wrong . Here india is neutral or individual country in the time of war.
Here the reference of ninjisky and diglihev. Both have realtions like homosexual and because of this ninjisky got mad and wrote a diary so in this way the reference is connected. Here are paradoxical word of universal love&loved ones. So we are in the category of selfish people we are not for universal love. Here the dictators are the best examples who are obsessed with their self love. In the below news it can be seen that dictators are very selfish because they aren't even affected with the war atmosphere they are only thinking about their self love.
In the next stanza there are all words regarding selfishness.
In the next stanza the lines
We must love one another or die.
These lines referred to the corona pandemic that if one should affect that virus the other member is also affected with the same thing. It is also similar with nowadays war atmosphere that if one soldier dies in war then his family and the country are also affected.
In the next the speaker or the poet used the word stupor lies it means a state of unconscious mind. Here the poet used Eros and dust which is also a paradoxical word Eros means life, dust means death.
Conclusion :
As per Auden this poem is so hypocritical. This poem is also useful to give people answer of crisis like corona pandamic or world War 3 in short if the crime is against humanity the poem is worth reading
As we seen I today's context that war is all about nationality so it can be called as an opium. This image show the nationality in the people
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