Auden is a modern poet or Modernism in Auden

Both thematically and structurally, Auden’s poems show the very essence of modernism. The characteristics that are needed to consider him as a modern poet are all in profusely blended in his poems. In the following passages, I have tried to demonstrate the elements of modernism both thematically and structurally to prove him as a modern poet.

Formal/Stylistic characteristics:

Symbolism and Imagery:

In terms of Formal/Stylistic characteristics, Auden is also a modern poet. He uses in his poetry a wide range of Imagery, symbolism and other figures of speech. He adopted the style of symbolism in order to represent his experience in the modern world.

In Petition, he represents the old, decaying and rotten Western civilization as the house of the deads. Praying to God, he writes:

 

“Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at

New style of architecture, a change of heart.”

 

Auden’s landscape imagery is, also modern. In the poem entitled In Memory of W.B.Yeats, he represents the atmosphere of the then Europe as follows:

 

“In the nightmare of the dark

All the dogs of Europe bark,

And the living nations wait,

Each sequence in his hate.”

 

 

Metre and Versification:

 

The most peculiar quality of the modern poetry is the poet’s tendency is to experiment with different kinds of metre and versification. Auden is also modern in this respect. He has experimented with free verse, blank verse, the ballad metre etc. In this connection Lawrence Durrell Observes:

 

“He tried his hand at everything, from jazz lyrics in two-four time, to free verse; and all his production are stamped with authority and feeling of mastery over his medium.”  (Durrell, 1952)

 

Thematic Characteristics:

 

War and violence:

Auden’s social concerns are mostly expressed in the context of war. Auden is an avid observer of war. He surveys different social, political, and economic upheavals caused by World Wars. He argues that most of the ills of the contemporary society results from war., Modern age is marked by violence and war. Auden says that war and violence had always been in the primitive age but they were not as brutal as the modern savages. In “The Shield of Achilles”, he says,

“Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles

Who would not live long.”

 

In “In Memory of W. B Yeats”, he refers that all Europe is in the grip of the terror of war and the bloodthirsty leaders of Europe are threatening each other. Nations live in isolation in constant dread of each other,

“In the nightmare of the dark

All the dogs of Europe bark,

And the living nations wait,

Each sequence in his hate.”

 

Auden is here indicating that all the European nations are crying for war, like the dogs barking loudly. There is no fellow-feeling among the European nations. Rather they are separated from each other by their hatred.

 

Mendelson writes in an essay entitled “Auden’s Revision of Modernism” that the poet “welcomed into his poetry all the disordered conditions of his time”

 

Barrenness:

 

Auden shows the barrenness of modern age as well as the modern human soul.  Auden refers that Modern age is totally barren without any feature

 

"A plain without a feature, bare and brown,

“No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood”

Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down."

 

Auden’s description of modern souls also likens the waste land of Eliot. Human souls are infertile and incapable of love. Forster in “A Passage to India”, says,

 

“Everything exists, nothing has value.”

 

 

Auden portrays that modern soul are hollow. Their mind are unable to communicate their emotions and their heart are like "the desert” where the

 

“the seas of pity lie

Locked and frozen in each eye’’

 

Human Suffering and Lack of Morality: Auden portray in his poems modern people’s lack of morality. In Musée des Beaux Arts Auden presents the philosophical truth about human suffering.. Moreover, people generally remain indifferent to the pain and suffering of an individual. While a man suffers, others are engaged in their usual labour In Musee Des Beaux Arts; the poet upholds the lack of morality through the mythical incident of Icarus Here he shows that in the human suffering. “Human is indifferent”. The painting painted by Brueghels shows that while some people of the worlds suffer, others are busy doing their work. The pains are generally so much absorbed in their lives that they remain unconcerned rather people eat, drink and enjoy and the children enjoy and play without any concern. This human condition leads our poet to the worlds of suffering. Auden says,

 

“While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.”

…

There always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen”

 

Icarus had the intention to fly to the sun. In order to put his ambition into practice, he tries to reach the sun with the help of artificial wings made of feather and wax. But after flying a little distance, his wings melted and he fell down head-long into the sea,

 

”the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,’’

 

And the expensive delicate ship must have seen,

 

“Something amazing, a boy fallen out of the sky

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.”

 

But no one comes to rescue and pays no attention rather all become busy with their own tasks. Actually this is the highlighted mentality of the modern man which is diagnosised in Auden’s poetry

 

“how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster;”

 

Auden portrays that modern people have lost their love or sympathy towards other. Even when a man dies, they do not care about it but continues their daily life style.

 

Richard Hoggart says, “Auden combines an intense interest in the human heart with a desire to reform society and he thinks over psychological ills greater than our political”

The above mentioned passages indicate that Auden in a true modern poet expressing the very ideals of modernity through his poems. Both thematically and structurally, his poems are landmark in modernism.

 

References:

01.   Richard Hoggart, (1951), Auden: An Introductory Essay. Retrieved from books.google.com

02.  Mendelson, Retrieved from www.pabooks.libraries.psu.edu

03.  Lawrence Durrell (1952), A Key to Modern British Poetry, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.