In section two, Auden states the fact in Ireland that "poetry makes nothing happen" (line 37).Īccording to him, poetry survives in the way of spreading through singing and reciting (this is an example of the use of the metaphorical meaning of "a mouth" in line 42) however, the spreading is restricted to limited dimension so that poetry only takes effect in non-political areas, where "executives would never want to tamper" (lines 38 - 39). In the last four stanzas of the poem, Auden reveals the need of poetry at the critical time by first giving the readers the idea of the feeling of hopelessness of human beings - the "disgrace from every human face" (lines 48 - 49) and the "seas of pity in each eye" (lines 50 - 51), which is then followed by statements of how human beings can transform the "distress" (line 59) into hope by means of the spreading and singing of poetry. earth" (line 43), the second stanza takes the readers to the "nightmare of the dark" (line 46), which actually symbolizes the eve of World War II. In the last section of the poem, the two levels of focus of the poem are brought together again so that while the first stanza of section three focuses on the burying of Yeats as "an honoured guest In addition, by making use of the metaphorical meaning of "mouth" (line 42) as the action of reciting and singing, Auden suggests the survival of poetry by means of spreading via the mouth. However, as Auden mentions in section two, "poetry makes nothing happen" (line 37) - the "" (line 35) of Irish politics remains unchanged even with the survival of the poem. While a number of his poems are dedicated to his upper-class acquaintances like Maud Gonne, some others are written with political intentions to make changes in the Irish society at that time. Section two focuses specifically on Yeats and the survival of his poem. In my opinion, Auden, in the third stanza, wisely draws a parallel between the dysfunction of Yeats' different body parts and the disruption of the European society so that by describing the chaos within Yeats' body, we get the idea of the tumult in the actual world.įinally, Auden emphasizes the point that even though the news about Yeats' death "is scattered among a hundred cities" (line 18), life of the majority of the people remains unchanged so that while the "brokers roaring on the floor of the Bourse" (line 25), the "poor sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed" (lines 26 - 27) and individuals go on to be imprisoned in their own obsession of freedom.
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