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Comment 4 of 4, added on November 4th, 2009 at 4:17 AM.
xcvbn
“THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES”
-deromantices art
-written in 1952
-most critics agree that it is about Auden’s disenchanted views post WW2, lept into Korean war conflicts
-uses pronouns instead of names in first stanza and this creates a universal, mysterious feeling,
-‘he’ eventually turns out to be Hephaestos, while she turns out to be Thetis, Achilles’ mother
-“come to grief” suggests they are going away to their deaths
1. troops, on a featureless plain, machine of war but comprised with people, can’t be understood, made of a million eyes, disembodied voice of a loudspeaker-leader is also unidentified and faceless as the army,
no military celebration, don’t hold a belief, they endure a belief-burdened by it
-stanzas 5 and 6 have a execution, made contemporary by the barbed wire, classical allusion to the crucifixion, tone is of resignation, that this is a mundane event watched by ordinary folk, suggests they are complicit in the execution
- ‘what their foes liked to do was done’- frighteningly dismissive of torture and mockery, the torture and mockery led to shame, and they ‘lost their pride’, and they ‘died as men, before their bodies died’, thoroughly humiliated in front of crowd
-stanza 8- ‘vacancy’-physically and spiritually void
-rape and violence are mundane events to him
-no integrity or empathy, frightening dystopia
-resigned tone in the final stanza, no emotive language in the stanza, focuses on the futility in which even the ‘iron-hearted’ wouldn’t live long
yoyo from Australia
Comment 3 of 4, added on July 16th, 2006 at 6:28 PM.
Yeh, i agree, this is excellent poetry. I didn't realise the 'she' was Thetis and the 'his' was Hephaestos. Thank you for that Ed.
bilton from Australia
Comment 2 of 4, added on April 29th, 2005 at 10:26 AM.
this was a pice of brilliance and is special
George Slade from United Kingdom
Comment 1 of 4, added on November 30th, 2004 at 9:16 PM.
Thetis, goddess and mother of Achilles, looks over the shoulder of Hephaestos, who is forging a new shield for her son. Expecting to see scenes of greatness and bounty which exalt her son, she is shocked to see dark pictures of the everyday world. This poem seems to be a rebuttal of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and it also showcases Auden's lack of faith in military might and the contemporary world while at the same time condemning the faith in the power of arms that Achilles held.
Ed from United States
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“THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES”
-deromantices art
-written in 1952
-most critics agree that it is about Auden’s disenchanted views post WW2, lept into Korean war conflicts
-uses pronouns instead of names in first stanza and this creates a universal, mysterious feeling,
-‘he’ eventually turns out to be Hephaestos, while she turns out to be Thetis, Achilles’ mother
-“come to grief” suggests they are going away to their deaths
1. troops, on a featureless plain, machine of war but comprised with people, can’t be understood, made of a million eyes, disembodied voice of a loudspeaker-leader is also unidentified and faceless as the army,
no military celebration, don’t hold a belief, they endure a belief-burdened by it
-stanzas 5 and 6 have a execution, made contemporary by the barbed wire, classical allusion to the crucifixion, tone is of resignation, that this is a mundane event watched by ordinary folk, suggests they are complicit in the execution
- ‘what their foes liked to do was done’- frighteningly dismissive of torture and mockery, the torture and mockery led to shame, and they ‘lost their pride’, and they ‘died as men, before their bodies died’, thoroughly humiliated in front of crowd
-stanza 8- ‘vacancy’-physically and spiritually void
-rape and violence are mundane events to him
-no integrity or empathy, frightening dystopia
-resigned tone in the final stanza, no emotive language in the stanza, focuses on the futility in which even the ‘iron-hearted’ wouldn’t live long
yoyo from Australia