Week Five

This week we read W.H. Auden's poetry. I really enjoy his work because of the vivid imagery he uses. Auden left England in 1938 and wrote "September 1, 1939" right after the war began. Arriving in New York, Auden appears helpless and overwhelmed. He begins the poem stating his location, similar to a reporter. I like the line: "all I have is a voice / To undo the folded lie." Auden uses his voice of poetry to make a difference. After he enlisted in the Army, he became an anti-war poet.

"In Memory of W. B. Yeats," Auden writes an epitaph for his friend, Yeats and mentions how poetry outlives its author. Auden touches on several factors about Yeats: his death, his human aspect, his poetry and its impact. The first section relates to Yeats's death and has no meter or rhyme. Words such as "disappeared" and "dead of winter" implies death.

Even his surroundings reflect death in the "brooks were frozen," the air-ports almost deserted, / and snow disfigured the public statues," which give a sense of isolation and decay. I like the alliteration that Auden uses: "Of all the instruments agree / The day of his death was a dark cold day." Yet, nature pays no attention to Yeats' death.

In fact, life continues as the river flows and the wolves run. Auden makes a point to show how death is a natural part of life. The second section is in iambic hexameter and touches on Yeats' struggles during his lifetime such as the "parish of rich women, physical decay / Yourself."

But the last section of Auden's poem is full of rhyme scheme and meter that suggest Yeats reached a high peak in his life. Auden writes that Yeats' works are "scattered among a hundred cities" because his "gift survived it all." I am glad that Yeats left his words with us through his poetry. Even though Yeats was a great poet, Auden writes, "You were silly like us," which inspires me because it shows that he was also a human who makes mistakes.

My favorite stanza is the last one: "In the deserts of the heart / Let the healing fountain start / In the prison of his days / Teach the free man how to praise." I interpret this stanza as a sign of hope. Although our hearts may be dry and hard, they can be made new again when we praise God for what we have.

A grateful heart changes our attitude and makes us free. When we get our eyes off our own selfish desires, we see with new eyes and realize how precious life is. I believe life is a gift that we should live to the fullest and treasure every minute of it. Perhaps, reading poetry by Auden and Yeats will broaden our views and open new windows of insight and perspective, which will lead to new levels of understanding.

Auden is a cool poet! He writes many poems such as an elegy for his contemporary and friend, W. B. Yeats as well as an awesome poem for Sigmund Freud. Poetry continues even though authors die. Auden's poems help me to see things in a new light. I always thought poetry was hard to understand, but now I realize that I can interpret it any way that I choose, which is the beauty of poetry.

I just wrote a paper about how poetry can be interpreted in different ways for my Literary Criticism class. My paper "Life versus Death" focuses on Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." I give the positive and negative interpretation and include Paul de Man as a reference. Although I interpret Frost's poem as a positive work, others might take a different approach.

I think Frost's speaker stopped by the pond for a moment of reflection while he drank in the beauty of the winter landscape; however, some readers might interpret the speaker as depressed and contemplating suicide. The falling snow, freezing temperatures, and dark woods set the stage for the longest night of the year on December twenty-second.

Poetry takes me to places that I have never been or never imagined. The more I read it, the more I enjoy it because it contains several layers of meaning. Auden is a poet who writes about many subjects. There is no chance of getting bored. I simply take a deep breath, jump in, and let his inspiring words lead me to another world.