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Poet: W. H. Auden
Poem: In Memory Of W.B. Yeats
Year: Published/Written in 1939
Comment 7 of 7, added on November 4th, 2009 at 4:16 AM.
auden
“IN MEMORY OF W.B. YEATS”
-elegy, poems of mourning and lamentation
-traditionally 3 stages of loss in an elegy, 1st = expression of grief and sorrow, 2nd= praise and admiration for qualities/person (often idealised), 3rd=consolation and solace
-also examines the role of poet and poetry in society
-in elegies, nature often mourns the loss, evident in 1st stanza of the poem
-1st stanza has bleak imagery and a melancholic tone, even inanimate objects ‘disfigured’
-2nd stanza, whilst nature mourns him, life goes on, his poetry is kept alive by ‘mourning tongues’
-3rd stanza, metaphor, imagery- ‘the provinces of his body revolted’, his body is a city within a country
-‘he became his admirers’
-‘scattered...unfamiliar affections’- people reading him is all that is left, people unknown to him
-‘Foreign code of conscience’- others impose their values/beliefs on his words
-‘Another kind of wood’- paper on which poems are written
-‘Words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living’ – imagery of words, people change the meaning of his poems, seeing different meanings and interpretations
- Musee de beaux arts similarities in stanza 5, as life goes on in its mundane way,
-‘bourse’ = the Paris stock exchange
-stanza 5, begins to sound less bleak, puts his death into ironic perspective,
-ironic repetition of last two lines of stanza one, now rings a little hollow
Structure of first section:
-free verse,
Section 2
-Addressed directly to Yeats, gives a personal feel, as one of the community of poets- “you were silly like us”
-use of ‘silly’ surprises and softens the image
-‘gift’ refers to his talent for writing, suggests a talent not asked for with a duty to use it
-‘gift survived it all’, ‘parish of rich women’ the demands patrons/fans placed on him,
- ‘yourself’, as if who he was prevented him always writing his best
-‘mad Ireland hurt you into poetry’, country in turmoil, unusual use of ‘hurt’, as if the pain had to be expressed
-central concern of Auden’s poetry: ‘for poetry makes nothing happen’, like in Sep 1,
-On a level the above is true- ‘Ireland has her madness and weather still’
- On another it does exist ‘a way of happening’
- ‘Ranches’, reference to the U.S.
- Water symbolism/imagery in last four lines
- Despite saying that poetry doesn’t do anything, it says it always remains and survives
Structure of section 2:
-most lines around 12 syllables, some have 8
-still has a conversational feel to it due to the enjambment
yoyo from New Zealand
Comment 6 of 7, added on April 2nd, 2006 at 9:00 PM.
You guys are all so amateur. You have no idea what this poem is even about. First of all it's an elegy written in memory of W.B. Yeats. To be consistent with the ideal elegiac poem, Auden has given his poem a dark and somber tone. He reinforces this attitude with references to WWII, which was just starting around the time Auden wrote this poem. In the Second portion of his poem, he is using an apostrophe, directly addressing Yeats, and stating that "poetry is a way of expressing sadness and suffering," In his last part of the poem, he has changed his writing style to imitate that of Yeats (which is hardly a critique) and in the last stanza speaks of healing and comfort, acceptance if you will.
Leah from Canada
Comment 5 of 7, added on September 19th, 2005 at 2:01 AM.
this poem is super confusing in the way it is introduced and described.
kiiim from Australia
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“IN MEMORY OF W.B. YEATS”
-elegy, poems of mourning and lamentation
-traditionally 3 stages of loss in an elegy, 1st = expression of grief and sorrow, 2nd= praise and admiration for qualities/person (often idealised), 3rd=consolation and solace
-also examines the role of poet and poetry in society
-in elegies, nature often mourns the loss, evident in 1st stanza of the poem
-1st stanza has bleak imagery and a melancholic tone, even inanimate objects ‘disfigured’
-2nd stanza, whilst nature mourns him, life goes on, his poetry is kept alive by ‘mourning tongues’
-3rd stanza, metaphor, imagery- ‘the provinces of his body revolted’, his body is a city within a country
-‘he became his admirers’
-‘scattered...unfamiliar affections’- people reading him is all that is left, people unknown to him
-‘Foreign code of conscience’- others impose their values/beliefs on his words
-‘Another kind of wood’- paper on which poems are written
-‘Words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living’ – imagery of words, people change the meaning of his poems, seeing different meanings and interpretations
- Musee de beaux arts similarities in stanza 5, as life goes on in its mundane way,
-‘bourse’ = the Paris stock exchange
-stanza 5, begins to sound less bleak, puts his death into ironic perspective,
-ironic repetition of last two lines of stanza one, now rings a little hollow
Structure of first section:
-free verse,
Section 2
-Addressed directly to Yeats, gives a personal feel, as one of the community of poets- “you were silly like us”
-use of ‘silly’ surprises and softens the image
-‘gift’ refers to his talent for writing, suggests a talent not asked for with a duty to use it
-‘gift survived it all’, ‘parish of rich women’ the demands patrons/fans placed on him,
- ‘yourself’, as if who he was prevented him always writing his best
-‘mad Ireland hurt you into poetry’, country in turmoil, unusual use of ‘hurt’, as if the pain had to be expressed
-central concern of Auden’s poetry: ‘for poetry makes nothing happen’, like in Sep 1,
-On a level the above is true- ‘Ireland has her madness and weather still’
- On another it does exist ‘a way of happening’
- ‘Ranches’, reference to the U.S.
- Water symbolism/imagery in last four lines
- Despite saying that poetry doesn’t do anything, it says it always remains and survives
Structure of section 2:
-most lines around 12 syllables, some have 8
-still has a conversational feel to it due to the enjambment
yoyo from New Zealand