IN MEMORY OF W. B. YEATS ************** W. H. Auden

21.        W. H. Auden       *********                                                   In Memory of W B Yeats

Write an essay on the following

1.       “In Memory of WB  Yeats” is not just about Yeats. It is about poetry and poets”. Discuss

2.       Discuss the elegiac elements in “In Memory of W B Yeats”

W H. Auden belongs to the post modern period of English literature. Like Alexander Pope of Neoclassical period, Auden too is a satirical poet. “In Memory of W B Yeats” is a glorious tribute to the great Irish poet by his disciple poet Auden. The poem is an elegy lamenting the irreparable loss of the Irish poet W B Yeats who died on 29^th January 1939 in a hospital in France. The poem has three parts and in the first part of the poem W.H. Auden introduces pathetic fallacy using extended metaphor begins with “He disappeared in the dead of winter” and says that the brooks were frozen, the airports were deserted and the wolves ran through the evergreen forests”.
 All the countries of Europe were restless because Hitler’s Germany attacked Poland and France and England supported Poland against Germany and it was the beginning of Second World War. The comparison is apt because all the parts of the dying poet rebelled and his mind was empty and the body rejected medicines and finally the poet became his admirers (breathed his last).  This is the elegiac convention practiced by all poets.

In the second section of the poem W.H. Auden describes the main features of the poetry of WB Yeats. The narrator says that the poet was  a man with all the weakness and frailties of a human being. He fell in love with many rich Irish ladies. Lady Gregory, the great Irish dramatist and Maud Gonne are some of his distinguished lady friends. W.B. Yeats with madly in love with his motherland Ireland and composed many patriotic poems to inspire the freedom struggle of Ireland. But his poetry could not reform Irish people nor brought freedom to Ireland. Instead, hundreds and thousands of Irish martyrs were created because British government gave them death punishment. Poetry is always born in isolated minds of the poets. No power on the earth can destroy  the sources of poetry. Many dictators tried to imprison poets, but poetry is emerged out of nothing shocking the megalomaniac dictators. 

In the final section of the elegy “In Memory of WB Yeats”, the narrator pays glorious tribute to the great poet of Ireland. He says “Irish vessel is emptied of its poetry”. Poets are prophets. W. H. Auden speaks about the outbreak of 2^nd World War. He says that the Europe is in spiritual darkness because all the countries bark against each other like mad dogs and the  intellectual community in all these nations are anxiously and helplessly waiting because people are blinded with hatred of their neighbor, leading to war. Therefore, W. H. Auden asks us to follow the poet because poetry always leads through the right path of life. In the Bible God cursed Adam and Eve to earn their daily bread and butter by hard work,  but the poets like WB Yeats converts the curse into a beautiful vineyard for human beings by singing of the failures and frailties of human life and fill human hearts with the spirit of love and peace. Although human life is a prison of difficulties and problems, poets teach us to praise each other and wipe out hatred and ill will.                                                 Kjt/-20-03-2020