Essay: September 1st 1939 by W H Auden (Complete Version)

The following essay will talk about one of the most famous poems written by Wystan Hugh Auden: “September 1st, 1939 whose title, which is a date, refers to what happened in that day. It talks about the beginning of the Second World War and the tragic results of that conflict. In this essay I will focus on some of the stanzas that called my attention in order to reflect on what the author felt about that event which entails several consequences for people who lived there.

The poem “September 1st ,1939” was written as a way to express Auden’s disappointment for a decade in which violence among nations affected citizens in different ways. These will be explained through a brief historical review in order to understand the poem better. On September 1st, 1939, the invasion of Poland by German-Nazi armies entailed the beginning of the Second World War. German forces led by Hitler decided to expand their territory and spread the Nazi ideology in different nations, especially in Poland, a country whose army was easily defeated. As a consequence of that conflict, many people, especially Jew people who lived in the surrounding, were tortured and killed and a large amount of houses where destroyed. People felt overwhealmed for those moments of panic because of the violent situation that affected them.

In the first days of the Second World War, the poem was written by W. H Auden as a description of the context in which the poem took place. In the first stanza Auden describes the situation as a “dishonest decade” by emphasizing his disapproval of the destruction of the places and the killing of their inhabitants after the war. Therefore, Auden depicts the landscape which had been affected by the conflict:

“Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night”.

The last two sentences of this stanza demonstrate Auden’s repudiation for this situation which was regarded as the cruellest in that decade: The “oduor of death” that represents people who died as a result of the conflict which was regarded as the bloodiest one ever seen in the history, because of the torture and the killing of innocent people.

The last four lines of the second stanza are even more surprising. In this part of the poem, readers can rescue a kind of message concerning to the importance for schoolchildren in learning about the unfavourable results of a conflict in where both sides harm each other:

“I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return”.

The third stanza is based on Auden’s disagreement about the concept of “Democracy” which had been wrongly interpretated by dictators in that decade. The author makes a critique on “the elderly rubbish they (dictators) talk”, which affects the real concept of Democracy. Auden expresses that dictators’ speeches are mostly based on wrong ideologies that increase suffering and pain in a nation.

Personally I think that this is a poem in which the disapproval of a context affected by the war is clearly stated. As a reader, I could focus on that historical event by reading it. By this I mean I could imagine the context of the conflict: destroyed places, oppressed people, and armies fighting for what they wanted, and so on. What most impressed me is the emphasis put by the author when they described the event.

From my point of view, the poem itself is a good one and it is also a good way to reflect on the main topics that are conveyed there, such as violence, death, suffering, conflicts, among others. The last four lines of the eight stanza made me think a lot:

“And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die”.

I felt the emphasis that Auden put when he expressed his concerning about the way people relates to their peers. People must make love and not war, otherwise the opressor and the oppressed will face in a confict which could entail serious consequences. I also agree with what Auden said about “those to whom evil is done, do evil in return”. When I read that part of the poem think about people who face the consequences of doing wrong things against the rest. That statement can be conected with the golden rule: “Don't do to others what you don't want others do to you”. Conflicts are just made to harm people without any reason.

This poem, apart from being a critique of German army decision to invade and attack the territory where many innocent people died, it is also a way that Auden chose to convey the readers something crucial that he experienced. Since Auden lived in a context where people were forced to follow the rules of the dictators, the publication of this poem in those decades could have been a real risk, because he mostly critiqued the decision of powerful leaders which were involved in the invasion of Poland. In spite of being oppressed Auden decided to publish what he wrote in 1940, and this piece of poetry would lead the readers to reflect on a society which unfortunately opted to solve problems by violence.

To conclude, W. H Auden wrote “September 1st , 1939” as a way to express his disappointment because of what he experienced during the invasion to Poland and the Second World War in general. In the poem, Auden does not critique only the distruction of the cities and the anihilation of their inhabitants, but also critiques the way dictators ruled the nation by basing on wrong ideologies that affected the rights of the citizens. Another important point that Auden emphasizes is that violence only entails violence and nobody wins. Despite of the risk he took, Auden published his masterpiece in 1940. This poem was sent by all readers in order to reflect on the tragic situation that affected humankind in that decade.

http://www.poemdujour.com/Sept1.1939.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_(1939)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/523611/an_analysis_of_w_h_audens_september.html

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