Auden Type b Question...

Do you think that Auden’s poems are dominated by death?

I think that Auden’s poems are not dominated by death- rather associated with life, and the sufferings endured before death than the physical action. This may be a reflection on his own life also.

A lot of Auden’s poems are story-like, with a continual theme of characters, settings, studying people’s livelihoods and reactions to events. This suggests that the major theme is events associated with life, rather than death itself.

 In ‘Miss Gee’; although her death is one of the large events in the poem, the event of it taking place is played down- being completed in just one stanza, although her life has been a running theme throughout. Comments from other characters, such as the dialogue between the doctor and his wife- ‘she’s a goner, I fear’ leaves the reader with a sense of dignity lost on Miss Gee’s behalf- as she is spoken of as if she were an object or someone less worthy of stereotypical doctor speak. This adds to the point that Auden’s poetry plays down death and increasingly comments on causes, especially life itself. This could also be a reflection on Auden’s own life experiences, as he may feel that life isn’t what it’s said to be- and soon followed by abrupt death.

In ‘1^st September 1939’; which is the day that Germany invaded Poland, there is an obvious link to death, as WWII is about to be declared a few days after. However, this poem does not revel in the event of death- but rather, talks of ‘evil’ the feelings of ‘defenceless[ness]’ and support: ‘show an affirming flame’, though still with the underlining knowledge that ‘we must suffer them all again’. As Auden writes the poem relevant to a collective group as soldiers and normal men that have to fight, building a sense of life and community into an initially dark topic. He speaks of the ‘unmentionable’ and says of things that have ‘driven a culture mad’- but does not speak of the death itself, suggesting that this poem is more dominated by reactions and suffering, rather than death.

In ‘Victor’, there are only implications of death, although Victor kills Anna, his wife. As there are orders from the ‘river’ to simply ‘kill’ Anna, there is a large association with obeying what he has known. This could be relevant to Auden’s life, as he observed the Spanish Civil War, and would have picked up on the brutality of higher beings ordering to ‘kill’ other men, and having to respond in that way. The idea of greater powers and turning extreme against or for them runs throughout, as Victor is told to be ‘sat in a corner’ saying: ‘I am the alpha and omega, I shall come to judge the earth one day’- taking the role of God into a perspective of a human that has lost control. Victor may have ended up killing his wife, as a result of his Dad, who he refers to as being ‘in heaven’, who he remembers previously saying: ‘don’t you ever tell lies’...and consequently, as Anna has lied to him, he has to undergo the duty that his ‘father’ sees fit. Auden is known to have had a Catholic faith in the past, but this is halted when he chooses to turn gay. This indecisiveness and theme of judgement may be as result of his previous experiences with concerns to his faith.

Overall, I think that largely, Auden’s poems are based on life, people, suffering, effects and results of it. This is clear in a lot of the poems, and death is quite low-key in most of them. This is continually played down in his poems, and may be as a result of traumas or sufferings he has personally experienced- due to his faith, sexuality, experiences of War.