Themes of Individual Suffering, Negligence, Fear, Uncertainty in W.H.Auden’s Poems

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THEMES OF INDIVIDUAL SUFFERING, NEGLIGENCE, FEAR, UNCERTAINTY IN W.H.AUDEN’S POEMS: W.H.Auden is one of the representative poets of the age who is also well-versed in history, philosophy and theology. He has a remarkable grip on contemporary currents of thought in political theory, science and psychology. He is the keen observer of everything and with this keenness he finds out some basic traits of the contemporary men. He shows through his poems the themes of individual suffering, negligence, fear, uncertainty which prevails through the people of the age. His poems nicely reflect these themes. Auden’s poem “September 1, 1939” bears the sense of fear and uncertainty among the people. The title of the poem is significant as it reflects upon the date of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. In the first stanza he says about the “waves of anger and fear” which “circulate over the bright” and “darkened lands of earth”. Auden in this poem discusses about the helplessness of man. We find the elements of fear, individual suffering of men due to the war. The poem suffers from ambiguity which seems to be reflected through the suffering people. In Auden’s poem “In Memory of W.B.Yeats” the great poet’s death goes unnoticed by both men and nature. Here an individual is neglected though he is a great person. The death of the Yeats does not hamper the normal flow of life. Auden here also shows the themes of individual suffering and negligence through the death of the great poet. Here his death is shown as an ordinary occurrence. “Partition” shows a man who is deeply concerned with the “fate of millions” in the confinement of huge mansion. Auden here satirises the British political strategy to divide and rule. It can be said that the million people are neglected and the power is given to only man. At the end of the poem through the words like “afraid”, “get shot” Auden represents the

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