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Unit 18 Auden and Spender UNIT 18 AUDEN AND SPENDER Structure 18.0 Objectives 18.1 Introduction 18.2 W.H. Auden 18.3 On this Island 18.3.1 A Discussion on the Text 18.4 The Unknown Citizen 18.4.1 Appreciation 18.5 Stephen Spender 18.6 I think continually of those who were truly great 18.6.1 Discussion 18.7 The Express 18.7.1 Discussion 18.8 Let Us Sum Up 18.9 Suggested Reading 18.10 Answers to Exercises 18.0 OB JECTIVES Our aim in this unit is to examine closely two poems each of W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender, two modem English poets who appeared on the literary scene as ranking only next in importance to T.S. Eliot. This unit will help you understand these poets and these poems in a more critical perspective. 18.1 INTRODUCTION This unit will briefly introduce the poets W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender and then follow up these short biographical notes with textual discussions of the prescribed poems. As you 'know already, for the basic approach to a poem, three main questions ought to be kept in mind: i) What is it about? ii) How is it done? iii) Does it succeed? The critical appreciations of the poems in this unit will pay special attention to these questions. Verbal analysis will be conducted, and the development of the meaning taking place in the individual poem will be noted. After locating and discussing the theme of the poem, critical comments will be given on the language devices used. Comparison and contrast with other poets and poems will be woven into the textual analysis at the relevant points. Thus the unit will make you react more sharply and sensitively to the plain sense of the poem and then make you move towards a sensuous apprehension. This is just one of the ways of understanding poetry. 18.2 W.H. AUDEN Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-73) has been considered to be the most representative of the English poets who wrote with pronounced Marxist affinities during the 1930s. Auden became a member of the Communist Party in 1932 but only to break away from it in 1939 when the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed. As a poet, Auden is concerned primarily about the social and psychological maladies that have contaminated the modem world. He resorts to plain, matter-of-fact language, and a bitterly ironic style. His drift away from Marxism gradually brought him nearer to religion and some of his poems show a marked proneness to Christian motifs and parallels. His poetical works include Poems (1930), The Orptor (1932), Trends in Post-war Look Stranger (1936), Another Time (1940), New Year Letter (1941), For the Time Being: A International Relations Christmas Oratorio (1944), The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1947), The Shield of Achilles (1955), Homage to Clio (1960), About the House (1966) and Epistle to a Godson and other Poems (1972). Wystan Hugh Auden In 1945, Auden became an American citizen and his 'The Unknown Citizen' was written soon after. Auden seems to have been ptofoundly fascinated by W.B. Yeats in spite of the latter's romantic, mythical vision of life and poetry and regarded him as one of the greatest poets of the century. In fact, Auden's poem 'In Memory of W.B. Yeats' is an elegy on the death of the poet. Poetry for Auden was no more an instrument to effect desirable changes in the society but a happening that modified the psychic reality of a few readers. According to Auden, a poem once composed and released by the poet was no more under his control but lived its own life, continually formed and re-formed in the minds of the people. Auden's development as a poet, however, has not been of the radical nature of W.B.Yeats or T.S. Eliot, to both of whom, he owes much. 18.3 ON THIS ISLAND Look, stranger, on this island now The leaping light for your delight discovers, Stand stable here And silent be, That through the channels of the ear May wander like a river The swaying sound of the sea. Here at the small field's ending pause Where the chalk wall falls to the foam and its tall ledges Oppose the-pluck And knock of the tide, And the shingle scrambles after the sucking surf, And the gull lodges A moment on its sheer side. Far off like floating seeds the ships Auden and Spender Diverge on urgeirt voluntary errands, And the full view I Indeed may enter And move in memory as now these clouds do, That pass the harbur mirror 1 And all the summer through the water saunter. i i I Glossary stable :fixed. b channels :passages ledges : narrow horizontal shilves coming out from a wall L pluck : courage, Spirit knock : blow shingle : rounded pebbles on the seashore scrambles :crawls sucking : licking, rolling about and squeezing surf : waves breaking in white foam on the sea-shore gull :a large, long-winged sea-bird I lodges :enters and rests sheer : without a slope, very steep diverge : branch away urgent :needing prompt decision or action voluntary : doing without being compelled errands : short journeys to take or get something saunter : move in a leisurely way, quietly, with an unhunied pace. P 18.3.1 A Discussion on the Text You must have noticed that this poem is one of place and scene and it suffers from none of I the strain of some of Auden's other poems. In fact, this poem is the first piece in a collection of his poems with the title Look Stranger! (entitled in the U,S.A. On this Island) containing Auden's more serious poetic output of the thirties. You may perhaps be interested io know I that Auden also probably wrote part of the commentary for a production by Strand Films on behalf of the British Travel Association, entitled Beside the Seaside, in which p0eix-y had been applied as a general emotional commentary. It was apparently for this film that he wrote the poem entitled 'Look Stranger, on this Island now', though it was not used in the soundtrack. Let us now move on to the text itself. What is the pocm about? It is about a coastal scene. In fact, it is a picture of the sea from Dover Cliff in the West Country of England. The poet has artistically plotted his objective description of this natural scene in three stanzas, each of which presents a sense of perspective that shifts slightly in the next one. The first stanza presents a neat little exposition in which the poet introduces us to the scene itself. Somewhat like Wordsworth in his sonnet entitled Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, Auden here invites us to look at a natural scene at a particular point of time and be conscious of the glory and splendour of that particular sight. Auden asks the stranger10 look at the beautiful scene of that island as revealed by the rays of light primarily for the pleasure of the onlooker. The stranger is advised to stand firmly and silently there so that the swinging sound of the sea may leisurely pass into his ears like a meandering river. Ih the second stanza, the poet presents a slight shift in his pe;spective, and asks the stranger to pause at the ending of the small field and notice the chalk walls of the cliff falling towards the sea. The stranger is asked to notice the narrow horizontal shelves of these walls braving Trends in Post-war courageously the blow of the waves, and observe the rounded pebbles on the seashore Intcrnationol Relations crawling toward the sea-waves which break into white foam. The stranger can also see a gull entering and resting on the steep side of the cliff. The third stanza presents a still different perspective in which we obtain a more open-ended, over-all view. The poet presents an almost cinematographic description of the ships in the distant horizon moving out in various directions on different missions. This full view, the poet hopes, may enter the very consciousness of the onlooker and move in to the individual memory very much like the clouds that float over the clearly reflecting mirror of the harbour and wander all through the summer through the water of the sea. Let us now look closely at the poet's use of words. The very first line with its directness seems to catch the attention of the onlooker, and the words "Look Stranger" have an urgent appeal. The repetitions of the "1" sound ("leaping light". "delight") in the second line of the first stanza and the "s" sound in the last line of the first stanza ("swaying sound", "sea") give the poem a certain musical effect and help in creating the hushed atmosphere of the scene. This repetition of the consonant sound "s" at the beginning of these words ("swaying sound", "sea") as you may recall is known as alliteration. And the poet uses this figure of speech in the next two stanzas also ("shingle scrambles .......... sucking surf, stanza 2 line 5, "move .......... me'mory", Hanza 3 line 5). Moreover, the poem is remarkable for the beauty of its imagery. You must have noticed that the phrases "channels of the ear", stanza. 1 line 5, "sucking SUIT', stanza 2 line 5 present powerfully descriptive images that add to the impact being created by the poet. The "sound" is allowed to wander "like a river", and a cdmparison has been made between the two movements.
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