Auden's Poem September 1 1939 Review example essay topic

On September 1, 1939, Hitler's forces invaded Poland as the rest of the world watched. The ramifications of this were immense for the Jewish people, as many of them were rounded up and shipped off to concentration camps. Hitler's ideas and actions as frightening as they seemed, were far from original. Mussolini rose to power in Italy and the fascists were the ruling party in Spain. Europe and her Jews were burning. W.H. Auden in "September 1 1939" could not help but be overwhelmed by the tragic events of his generation. Auden was born February 21, 1907, in York, England.

He was in Germany during the rise of Fascism and fought in Spain against the fascists during the thirties. Soon after he sought refuge in the United States, which is where he wrote his famous poem September 1, 1939. The poem was written in response to the nazi conquest of Poland, which Auden viewed as yet another victory of Fascism. Although the poem has no direct reference (aside form the title) to the events of September 1, 1939 Auden includes many innuendos of the day. For example the lines at the end of the second stanza, the mention of Hitler's birthplace, and the beginning of the last stanza "defenseless under the night" Auden uses many historical references in his work. Auden refers to Martin Luther, the initiator of the Protestant Reformation, because he is one of the sources of German nationalist anti-Semitism.

Luther' anti-Semitic themes were carried out to the letter by the Third Reich on Kristallnacht in November 1938. Adolf Hitler considered Luther a great German, and the Nazi party institutionalized his anti-Jewish rantings. He also makes mention of the town of Linz which is where Hitler was bon and where he declared the Anschluss in the year 1938. Auden uses historical references to show the timelessness of his ideas. He speaks of the Ancient Greek philosopher Thucydides who was exiled due to his democratic ideas. Auden is saying that unless history is learned from history will be repeated.

Auden was able to write the poem in a way that many people were able to attach the feelings they felt on the dreadful day of September the 11th. The last two paragraphs of the poem speak about the skyline of New York. The skyline, which Auden was speaking of, contained those two giants which came crashing down. Many people were able to connect with the words of the poem for that reason. The line at the beginning of the poem also connected with peoples feeling on September the 11th. "The unmentionable odour of death Offends the September night" was able to quantify the feelings of people at the time.

Auden's poem may have been used to describe the events of September 11th for another reason. The main idea of the poem is that history, unless learnt from, is bound to repeat itself. After the tragedy that befell the United States on September 11th many people made a conscious effort to learn from the mistakes that led to the tragedy and assure it would never happen again. Auden's poem put that idea into words. September 1 1939 is a poem for the ages. It is very complex and can be read in many different ways to mean many different things.

The poem can conjure memories of the terrible tragedies of yester years or it can remind us of a time so recent the images are fresh in our minds. The poem evokes memories of famous men and shows us how even greatness is in the eye of the beholder..