Modern Poetry Essay

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Q-1. What picture of contemporary society do you find in Auden’s poetry? W.H Auden is widely considerd as one of the most influential and all-around members of his generation of modernist poets. Even though his status as a modern poet is well-decided by his bold experimentation with the accepted literary forms and metres, Auden’s enormous intelligence, complex philosophical and moral vision, and keen wit distinguish him from his contemporaries. He seemed conscious of what was happening not just in his country, rather across the world. It is this awareness of social concerns that inspires his greatest poems. Auden’s poetry is more relevant to contemporary social and political realities than that of T.S. Eliot. Auden explores social injustice, oppression and loss of human values. He thinks that it is one’s moral duty to protest all the irregularities and injustice. He finds the need of revolution to change in the structure of the society. Auden is the spokesman of the masses. He talks about the need for individual freedom and sympathy for the helpless. Auden’s social concerns are mostly expressed in the context of war. Auden is an avid observer of war. In his poetry he functions as the critic of war. He surveys different social, political, and economic upheavals caused by World Wars I and II, Spanish Civil War, and Communist revolution in Russia. He argues that most of the ills of the contemporary society results from war. In the poem The Shield of Achilles Auden embodies in poetic myth, the desolation, savagery, and uninspiring barrenness of contemporary society. In this poem Auden compares and contrasts the current social condition with the values and unity of the glorious past. The classical shield reflects a lively and gay picture of the glorious past, whereas the modern shield reflects an ugly picture of the degenerative modern civilisation, which is

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