What is the function of the poet that can be inferred from Auden's poetry and poetics?
Apart from renowned for his literary genius, Auden has been credited for his ability to locate his poetry within the realities of the times, confronting them with a sense of responsibility as an artist, as well as with a sense of hope as an individual. He was able to impact the reader's mind in persuasive and compelling ways, such that the poems exudes a sense of modernity in its technique and outlook. His poetic landscape is often the backdrop 'against which some human situation is considered or a symbol of the psyche.' Auden often assumes the role of the detached and 'clinical' poet where he reveals few of his personal fears or emotions but at the same time, concerned with the addressing the states of socio-political and humanity.His poetry situates itself in the present, and when he did not look back on history, he did so with a clear sense of the present as the realm that was pertinent. In Spain, for example, Auden revisits the history of modern civilisation with less of an air of nostalgia than with the drive of the rhetoric towards a serious contemplation of what is to be done 'to-day'. Because of the repetition of 'yesterday', the sudden insertion of the phrase 'but today the struggle' becomes a cognitively and emotio
Rather, it is part of a purposive attempt to illustrate that those achievements belong in the past, and that the future in 'tomorrow' lies in a weak and elusive 'perhaps', hinging upon the nature of our response to the needs at the present. While he for certain experienced modernity first hand, in the manner of actually living in the 20th century, the poetry he wrote was not from an expressive, self-reflexive stance, but from a position as a commentator and critic with a completely modern outlook. In the latter, Auden uses regular stanzas, with the movement of the poem driven by a repetitive pattern of trochaic and iambic rhythm. In these fundamental ways, Auden's poetry engages us at the level of contemporary experience useful and relevant to our understanding of life in the 20th century. Done in a humourous tongue-in-cheek fashion, Auden addresses the real state of that modernity has brought individuals to and hints at the social dysfunction that lies beneath the facade of modernity: when it comes to the crunch, 'Was he free? Was he happy?'. Similary, Auden address larger social issues in poems such as The Shield of Achilles and The Unknown Citizen. Hoggart, Richard, Auden : An Introductory Essay, London : Chatto & Windus, 1951. Form and content seem to be so misalign that we appreciate the message of the poem and are engaged emotionally because of the sense of ambiguity and unnat!uralness that the poem's form helps to generate. In September 1, 1939, Auden captures the sense of futility and disillusionment characteristic of the period of the impending World War 2. It also gives the poem its unpleasant, stirring effect because of the stark contrast between the nature of the form and the subject matter it is used to present. The phrase also personifies the skyscrapers and points at the folly of the belief that they signify the prowess of modern man. Spain is but one of Auden's many public poems that sought to address the issues of the time. Auden is a poet whose writing was accessible and, therefore, enjoyable, by abandoning the 'grand style' and, instead, introducing freshness and variety to the use of traditional forms. Auden's chronological listing of human progress and history is not nostalgic reminiscence. 'Blind skyscrapers' as a transferred epithet implies 20th Century society's flawed vision of its own progress.
Common topics in this essay:
Miss Gee,
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Citizen Auden,
Street Uncertain,
Unknown Citizen,
Germany Versailles,
Spain Auden's,
World War,
Similary Auden,
Referring Western,
20th century,
subject matter,
miss gee,
sense uneasiness,
auden addresses,
unknown citizen,
'blind skyscrapers',
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Acceptance Essays
