w h auden's poetry themes
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Presentation, Themes of Auden's poetry.TRANSCRIPT
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THEMES OF W.H. AUDEN’S POETRY
SAMI UL HAQ
M PHIL LITERATUR 2ND SEMESTER
LAHORE LEADS UNIVERSITY, LAHORE
W.H. AUDEN : INTRODUCTION
Born 1907 in England
Died 1973 in Austria
Anglo- American Writer
Poet
School and University teacher
Married Erika Mann (unconsummated love)
W.H. AUDEN : INTRODUCTION (CONTD)
Friend and lover of Christopher Isherwood
Witnessed Spanish civil War
Visited Sino-Japanese war “A Journey to War”
Moved to America in 1939
Become a US subject in 1946
W.H. AUDEN :POETRY
Eliot was successor of Yeats and Auden was Eliot’s successor.
His poetic works divided into three periods Early wok (1922-1939)
Middle Period (1940-1957)
Later Works (1958-1973)
W.H. AUDEN :POETRY
1ST period Wordsworth’s Romanticism+Rural style like Charles Dicken and T.S.Eliot style
Poems of 1St period are
Poems of 1928
Drama “Paid on both sides” and 30 poems in 1933 (Collective theme Family Ghosts)
W.H. AUDEN :POETRY (CONTD)
War Poetry 2nd period
Rediscovered Anglicanism
Poems about theological and history
Poems “Canzone” “kiros and Logos” “A Walk after Dark” “The Love Feast” “Love Feast” “The Fall of Rome”
W.H. AUDEN :POETRY (CONTD)
3rd Period
“About the House” in 1965
Published in total about 400 poems.
THEMES
Love
Religion
Politics and social concerns
Citizenship
THEMES CONTINUED
War
Death
Modern horrors
Totalitarianism
THEME: LOVE
These Poems deals with basic theme of love
“As I Walked out One Evening”,
“Lullaby”,
“O Tell Me the Truth About Love”,
and “Funeral Blues”
In the last stanza of “September 1, 1939” he says:
"We must love one another or die,"
In poem “The More Loving One” he says:
“If equal affection cannot be
Let the more loving one be me”
THEME LOVE: CONTINUED
THEME: RELIGION
In 1940 he reconverted to Christianity, he wrote about religion these poems have religious theme:
“For the Time Being“
"The Ballad of Barnaby“
"Song of the Devil"
THEME: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONCERNS
Age of political turmoil
Spain civil war, (fascism – Marxism )
Sino- Japanese war
“The Age of Anxiety”
“Journey to War”
THEMES: CITIZENSHIP
He married Erika Mann, unconsummated love for the purpose of providing her with British passport, citizenship, to shelter her from the Nazi’s crimes.
“The Unknown Citizen”
“Refugee Blues”
Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
THEMES: CITIZENSHIP (COTINUED)
THEME: WAR
War Poetry
Auden visited Germany with “US Strategic Bombing Survey”
Sino- Japanese war
Spanish Civil War
“Journey to a War”
“September 1, 1939”
"I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade".
Message of this poem:
"We must love one another or die,"
THEME WAR (CONTINUED)
Auden’s unpublished diary September 1, 1939:
"Such a beautiful evening and in an hour,
They say, England will be at war,"
THEME WAR (CONTINUED)
THEME: DEATH
“In the Memory of W.B.Yeats”
“In the Memory of Sigmund Freud”
“Musee Des Beaux Arts” (Museum of fine Arts).
“Funeral Blues”
“Let aero planes circle moaning overhead/ Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead”
“Musee Des Beaux Arts” (Museum of fine Arts)
This poem says:
“About suffering they were never wrong,/
The old Masters: how well they understood/
Its human position: how it takes place”
These sufferings include :
Unfaithfulness, sickness, time , greed , religious doubt, war ,and other hardships.
THEMES: MODERN HORRORS
THEMES:TOTALITARIANISM
Age of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Franco
“The Unknown Citizen”
“The Shield of Achilles”
“Friday’s Child”
Refugee Blues, and
“September 1, 1939”.
Auden’s poetry is anti-romantic with anti-heroic themes, having manifold aspects and themes; he was against totalitarianism and fascism, major themes of his poems are love, politics and social concerns, citizenship, religion, war, death, modern sufferings and totalitarianism. Through his poetry he convey a silent message:
CONCLUSION
"We must love one another or die,"
MESSAGE
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
