1. THEMES OF W.H.
AUDEN’S POETRY
{
SAMI UL HAQ
M PHIL LITERATUR 2ND SEMESTER
LAHORE LEADS UNIVERSITY, LAHORE
2. 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
3. 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 :
INTRODUCTION
(CONTD)
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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)
7. 3rd Period
“About the House” in
1965
Published in total
about 400 poems.
W.H. AUDEN :POETRY
(CONTD)
8. Love
Religion
Politics and social
concerns
Citizenship
THEMES
9. War
Death
Modern horrors
Totalitarianism
THEMES CONTINUED
10. 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”
THEME: LOVE
11. 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
12. 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: RELIGION
13. Age of political
turmoil
Spain civil war,
(fascism – Marxism )
Sino- Japanese war
“The Age of Anxiety”
“Journey to War”
THEME: SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL CONCERNS
14. He married Erika
Mann,
unconsummated love
for the purpose of
providing her with
British passport,
citizenship, to shelter
her from the Nazi’s
crimes.
THEMES: CITIZENSHIP
15. “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)
16. War Poetry
Auden visited
Germany with “US
Strategic Bombing
Survey”
Sino- Japanese war
Spanish Civil War
“Journey to a War”
“September 1, 1939”
THEME: WAR
17. "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)
18. 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)
19. “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”
THEME: DEATH
20. “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
21. Age of Hitler,
Mussolini, Stalin, and
Franco
“The Unknown
Citizen”
“The Shield of
Achilles”
“Friday’s Child”
Refugee Blues, and
“September 1, 1939”.
THEMES:TOTALITARIANISM
22. 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
