As I Walked Out One Evening by W.H. Auden.

„As I Walked Out One Evening‟, a poem written by W.H. Auden, presents multifarious universal
themes- love, time and death. It comes under the genre of dramatic literary ballad, for it is
embellished with figurative language and written in quatrains, but also shares some features of
sonnet, as it is rhymed.

Death, one of the most significant theme, is metaphorically presented in the first stanza. „Fields
of harvest wheat‟ delineates that wheat has fully-grown and is ready to reap just like the crowd
wandering in the streets are oblivious to their approaching death. This imagery has been used to
conjure up that golden hue one might expect at sunset and captures a sense of movement—the
swaying wheat mirroring the movement of the crowd. The poet has rigorously juxtaposed two
different images to articulate his views about death. Auden rhymes street with wheat. The rhyme
strengthens the connection between the urban and the rural environments by making them sound
connected. The strengthened connection reinforces the idea that the people on the street, like the
wheat in the field, are doomed.

Brimming river‟ represents time; the way river gushes in a continuous manner, time also passes
by and waits for none. Here, Auden has shown the viciousness of time. No matter how hard we
may try we could never stop the river from flowing. Similarly, the imagery of the bells of the
clock tower remind us of the Time that is passing-the time that will not stop for us. "Whirr and
chime" signifies that time is more powerful than anything human, even love. In addition, the
clocks also uphold that Time is the triumphant force since it is a race that can never be won by
humanity and there are never any exceptions to its limits nor are there any survivors of its
boundaries.

The narration is shifted from first person „I‟ to third person „the lover‟, for instance, the lover is
humming a song which tells that love is powerful and will conquer the time. Though it is
impossible that China and Africa meet or the river jumps over the mountain but the hyperbole is
deployed to express the power of love. „The river‟ has been personified with human abilities like
jumping to propound the idea of love being everlasting, audacious and powerful thing. For the
poet, time is sturdy as it will take away everything, however, the lover reiterates that his love will
bloom till the „ocean is hung up to dry‟.

Auden metaphorically portrays Time in terms that are almost disturbing, as it dwells "in the
burrows of the nightmare" (25) and watch the lovers from the shadows. Moreover, the moment
the lovers are about to complete their love, time intervenes and warns them of the existing
reality. „Cough‟ symbolizes that time interrupts whenever a person is about to get the ultimate
happiness, the love of his/her partner. Time is a silent and inevitable force that disrupts even the
most joyful moments. Furthermore, the poet says that whether there be miseries or worries in life
it still goes on and gradually „leaks away‟.

Another important theme that is presented in this Poem is the theme of Transience. According to
Auden, all things on the earth are the subject of change. Everything has to end and no one can
escape death. “Into a green valley/drifts the appealing snow” (33-34). Here the “green valley”
symbolizes youth and beauty, while “snow” in the very next line represents winter which in turn
symbolizes death. The poet says that the beauty and youth cannot last forever and they have to
end with the passage of time so we can say through the use of seasonal imagery, the poet talks
about the ephemeral nature of things. Similarly, in stanza 11, the poet says that the time does not
remain same for everyone, it changes and brings change in the life of human being. “where the
beggars raffle the banknotes/and the giant is enchanting to jack/and the lily-white boy is a
roared/and Jill goes down on her back (45-48)”. In these lines the poet says that with the
passage of time beggar will be rich but they don‟t know what to do. Then a pure, innocent little
boy becomes a wild child ("roared") and Jill (“Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill" fame) and
innocent boy involves in sexual activities. So, it can be said that Time has the ability to change
everything: poor to rich, enemy to friend, child to adult, innocent to experienced.

In stanza 10, the poet says that the movement of time is slow and imperceptible. “the glacier
knocks in the cupboard/the desert sighs in the bed”. In these lines natural phenomena are
presented with manmade thing. Here desert and glacier symbolize barren land, the inevitability
of time march and death. Auden says that time dominates all things and it cannot be kept out of
lives. Love cannot stop it neither a nice home with well stocked cupboard. The natural order will
always win out.

In stanza 11, Auden once again tells us about the inevitability of Time's march and ultimate
death, Auden gives us the image of a cracked tea cup that "opens a lane to the land of the dead."
Here the word tea can be interpreted in many ways. In ancient time, Tea was a beverage often
associated with a healthy life, meditative qualities and the ability to cure certain ailments. So,
that tea leaking out of cracked cup can be equated with all life-supporting elements (or, drink,
even life itself) draining away over time. That cracked tea-cup is just a small sign of what awaits
us all. One minute we are whole and useful, the next we are aged and cracked.

The last important theme that is presented in this poem is the theme of “death”. According to the
poet no matter how much we appeal, we are powerless to bless ourselves to escape time ultimate
triumph over earthly life. “Life remains a blessing/although you cannot bless (51-52). In this line
the poet says life is full of precious things though it is mixture of joys and worries but we cannot
overcome mortality. The last stanza also deals with the theme of death and triumph of time over
life. “It was late, late in the evening/the lovers were gone, the clock had ceased their
chiming/and the deep river ran on”. Here “late in the evening “symbolizes dark which is a sign
of death. The repetition of this word late has been used for emphasis and the poet wants to say
that death will conquer love and life. In the next line , lovers are gone in a literal as well as in
a figurative sense, too. Since Darkness has overtaken the scene Darkness symbolizes death. The
lovers are gone from the scene, but they are also, figuratively, dead.

The theme of Time is again presented in the last line of the poem. In concluding line -the river
seems to be symbolic of time's unyielding onward motion. The river appears to have little
concern for the human world and is unchanged by joy and grief. In spite of the of human fate,
nature and time will continue to move forward with or without us, as it has done for innumerable
years.
 Musee de Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden

“Musée des Beaux Arts” is written in free verse, meaning that the poem is essentially “free” of
meter, regular rhythm, or a rhyme scheme. The poem is divided into two parts, an octave and a
sestet, the octave rhyming „abbaabba‟ and the sestet usually rhyming „cdecde‟, free verse
employs varying line lengths and an irregular rhyme pattern, often shunning a rhyme scheme
altogether.

In Auden‟s lyric, the long irregular lines, subtly enforced by the irregular end rhyme pattern,
create a casual, conversational air more prosaic than poetic, and a somewhat blasé tone which is
reflective of the benign world illustrated in Brueghel‟s art. The casual, easy going argument the
tone suggests is ironic for the topic of discussion, the human position and its seeming
indifference to suffering, is anything but light and easy going.

The poem 'Musee des Beaux Arts' by W.H. Auden keep his language pretty simple and
straightforward and build up a fairly elaborated network of references and allusions to place,
people and things behind the scene. In the beginning, there is an allusion of the “miraculous
birth” i.e. the birth of Christ. The wise people are shown waiting for that moment and in the last
stanza of the poem, the reference to the myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus is given. Auden‟s
tone in the poem is measured, precise, and matter-of-fact. He does not use superfluous words or
stick to traditional rhyme or meter. The poem is not didactic; its moralizing is delicate. The
diction is certainly proletarian and accessible: “When someone else is eating or opening a
window or just walking dully along.” The reader senses that this is Auden‟s quiet contemplation
of a painting; one can almost see him standing before it, thinking about the nature of suffering
amidst those who do not care.

Auden elucidates in this poem that suffering occurs everywhere while not always seen, however,
when seen everyone is apathetic. The different pieces in the poem gives a general idea of
ignorance, suffering, the idea that people undergo pain and distress. There are various themes
present in the poem. The first stanza of the poem shows the theme of ignorance. Auden praises
“The Old Masters” for their knowledge about suffering and human position, and criticizes
today‟s common man as he is ignorant about the suffering and busy in common activities like
“eating or opening a window or just walking dully along”. Further, Auden gives reference of
“the aged” the wise ones who “reverently, passionately” waited for the arrival of the Christ but
on the other hand, today‟s common man was busy in his illegitimate activities and “did not want
it to happen”.

The second major theme, or general message, of this poem is about the nature of human
suffering. Auden recognizes that all humans have painful and traumatic experiences that can
change the course of their lives, but meanwhile the rest of the world continues on in a mundane
way. He is particularly impressed by how artists from past centuries capture this idea in their
paintings by showing the activities of people and animals around the margins of the main subject
of the paintings as Auden states that “the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s
horse/ Scratches its innocent behind on a tree”. While a painter might portray a martyr being
killed, he also does not forget to show an oblivious dog or horse going on with its life. The last
stanza is all about depicting the idea of suffering. In Breughel‟s Icarus, the ending of the myth of
Daedalus and his son Icarus told by Ovid is depicted, in which the two fashion wings for
themselves to escape imprisonment, but Icarus flies too close to the sun and the wax on the
wings melts, causing him to plunge to his death in the sea. This is the “disaster” mentioned in the
poem. Here, again we see the ignorance of people who “Quite leisurely” turns away from “the
disaster”. We notice that the ploughman nearby is busy in his work. He may have heard the
splash but “it was not an important failure”. Similarly, “the expensive delicate ship” must have
seen a boy falling from the sky and into the sea with “the splash” but they had to reach their
destination, so they “sailed calmly on”.

Another theme of the poem is the importance of art and how it can reflect life. Auden praises not
only the fact that the Old Masters could create paintings that look realistic, but also that they
were able to make an important statement about life. The poem shows how valuable fine arts are
for a culture. Auden's “Musée de Beaux Arts” sets itself up as a perfect example of the types of
moral reflection which art can inspire.
 The unknown Citizen

The unknown citizen is one of the significant poems of W.H Auden with a recurrent theme, the
dilemma and chaos modern man faces in the rapidly changing world. The poem was written in
1939, during the horrific scenario of world war 2 and in this poem Auden encapsulates the post-
war chaos and up rootedness. Besides immense physical suffering, Auden highlights how
difficult it is to retain individuality and identity in fast changing world of chaos. The theme of
identity loss accompanied by those of the materialism of modern man, conformism,
manipulation, encroachment of technology on the lives of humans, lack of true freedom and loss
of values are predominant in the poem.

It was the time of authoritarianism in Europe, and amid dictatorship in the various countries
in Europe, Man as a rational individual was losing his stance and distinctiveness. The definition
of the average citizen was confined to how well he conformed. With ever-advancing technology
of the modern world it is as if humanity of the world is decreasing. Humans are becoming more
and more like faceless citizens, or unknown citizens. It is because of this technology that humans
have become nothing more than statistics and facts on a piece of paper. The picture that the poem
paints of a 'Modern Man' is that he is someone who is devoid of the values that make him human.
He has no notion of freedom or happiness. Emotions, feelings, dreams and hopes do not matter
anymore.

He talks about the endeavour and struggle of the modern man to conform to the norms set by
the power structures which makes him an accepted and respectable citizen but by doing so he
fails to get his essential pleasures. It is a critique on totalitarianism eliminating democracy
because throughout the poem it is seen how the unknown citizen is compelled to do all the works
of different organizations and Auden sarcastically mocks him regarding the appreciation he get
from different agencies. In the very beginning of the poem instead of mentioning the unknown
citizen by the name he has been represented through a figure „‟To JS/07/M/378/ „‟ which shows
the immense control of state over the unknown citizen. Furthermore, the word „‟saint „‟ has been
sarcastically used for the unknown citizen that he is a saint who sacrifices his happiness and
conforms to what he has been told by the state. The government sees him as a number on a file
in a drawer in some government building. The only thing that could identify him from others in
his neighbourhood is as Auden wrote, "He was married and added five children to the
population, / Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation"
(Auden 26-27). This still gives a vague reference to how old he might be. He buys a lot of things
which are taxable to help the government. He possesses everything a modern man has but
relinquishes his identity to serve the state. This conformity and subservience to the state shows
complete loss of identity and individuality. Conformity has created apathetic and obedient
citizens which is exactly what the government wants. Therefore, Auden believes that conformity
is dangerous.

At the end of the poem the poet asks two important questions. Was he free? Was he happy?
No government statistics can ever answer these kinds of questions. By asking these questions,
the poet is drawing our attention to the question of freedom and happiness. Therefore, such a
question in this context would be „absurd‟. The only way for an individual to survive in a
regimented society is to conform and obey. The unknown citizen is devoid of any urge for self-
assertion. The poet suggests that our society has created a set of rules and regulations in which
individuals are supposed to follow and work as the system states. The stress for individuals to
conform in this system makes one loses his or her individualism. An ideal citizen, then, is the
one who fulfills the social expectations of behavior. Auden satirizes the kind of approach to
human behavior which judges the citizens according to their usefulness for the greater good.

In a nutshell, 'The Unknown Citizen' fits easily into the trends of modern literature and
highlights the problems that the people face today. The citizen remains unknown even though he
serves the Community because we are not shown who he really is as an individual which
elucidates that individuality is reduced and diminished for the sake of worldly business. The poet
says that statistics cannot sum up an individual and physical facts are inadequate to evaluate
human happiness. Therefore, the poem reflects Auden‟s insight of the concept of control versus
freedom which brings to light the dangers of losing sense of individuality.