Auden as a Modern Poet

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.