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Comment 3 of 3, added on November 4th, 2009 at 4:20 AM.
sep1
“SEPTEMBER 1, 1939”
Auden left England in 1938 to move to America
-wrote the poem just after the beginning of WW2
-refers to 52nd Street, a well-known jazz strip
-uses words such as ‘dives’ to give his words an American flavour
-last line of the first stanza mentions the ‘odour of death’, next stanza is begun with a neutral line about scholarship in order to become objective
- fifth line mentions Linz, which is the town where Hitler grew up
-third stanza makes mention of Thucydides, a historian who was exiled from his beloved Greek town
-Auden was reading his book at the time of writing the poem
-third stanza ended emotionally, mentioning ‘suffering’, ‘grief’ etc, fourth stanza begins with the line ‘into this neutral air’, creating an objective tone yet again
-neutral tone reflects that America was still neutral at this stage in the war
-fourth stanza deals with the indifference of the American people,
-in stanza six, Auden explores the root cause of the war- selfishness
-assonant rhyme
-in stanza 8, he becomes subjective with the use of ‘I’, for the second time in the poem
- ‘we must love one another or die’- Marxist statement?
-Auden blamed modern man’s anxieties on the renaissance and enlightenment which created ‘economic man’
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yoyo from Australia
Comment 2 of 3, added on July 15th, 2006 at 4:09 PM.
The Newberry Library, in Chicago, has recently acquired a wonderful calligraphy piece by Carl Kurtz (Kansas City Art Institute) entitled "September 1, 1939", which uses critical lines of the poem to make a symbolic picture. As of this writing, the new acquisition is not yet catalogued, but it should be soon, and then will be available for the public to study. (7/15/06)
Marilyn Justman from United States
Comment 1 of 3, added on December 6th, 2005 at 1:35 PM.
Christopher Hitchens' concluding seven-page chapter of his book _Why Orwell Matters_ beautifully reconstructs George Orwell's changing understanding of Auden's great poem "September 1, 1939. A good place to begin deeper research. Follow it up by reading pertinent parts of Orwell's essay "Inside the Whale."
John Wilder from United States
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“SEPTEMBER 1, 1939”
Auden left England in 1938 to move to America
-wrote the poem just after the beginning of WW2
-refers to 52nd Street, a well-known jazz strip
-uses words such as ‘dives’ to give his words an American flavour
-last line of the first stanza mentions the ‘odour of death’, next stanza is begun with a neutral line about scholarship in order to become objective
- fifth line mentions Linz, which is the town where Hitler grew up
-third stanza makes mention of Thucydides, a historian who was exiled from his beloved Greek town
-Auden was reading his book at the time of writing the poem
-third stanza ended emotionally, mentioning ‘suffering’, ‘grief’ etc, fourth stanza begins with the line ‘into this neutral air’, creating an objective tone yet again
-neutral tone reflects that America was still neutral at this stage in the war
-fourth stanza deals with the indifference of the American people,
-in stanza six, Auden explores the root cause of the war- selfishness
-assonant rhyme
-in stanza 8, he becomes subjective with the use of ‘I’, for the second time in the poem
- ‘we must love one another or die’- Marxist statement?
-Auden blamed modern man’s anxieties on the renaissance and enlightenment which created ‘economic man’
-
yoyo from Australia