Write the explanation of the poem entitled "In Memory of W. B.

Write the explanation of the poem entitled “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”. (Part-1)

Ans.

EXPLANATIONS

1. He disappeared in the dead of winter

The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,

And snow disfigured the public statues;

The mercury sank in the month of the dying day,

O all the instruments agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness

The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,

The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;

By mourning tongues

The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

Explanation with Reference to Context- These lines are from WH. Auden’s poem entitled ‘In Memory of WR. Yeats’. The poem was written at the death at W.B. Yeats in January 1939. it was a time fraught with uncertainty as the world was obituary and is both an evaluation and an elegy. it is also a prayer. The poem has three sections. The first section describes that wintry afternoon of his death.

These are the opening lines of the poem. Auden begins the elegy by pointing out that Yeats died on a day when it was bitter cold, brooks were frozen and airports were deserted. Public statues were disfigured by snow, and by evening the mercury in the barometer fell lower still, indicating a further fall in temperature. He asserts that it was a “dark cold day”. All nature went on as usual unaffected by his death. Wolves ran on in the forests as usual. and the river flowed an through the countryside. The people mourned his death. However, only the poet died, his poetry was unaffected by his death. These opening lines (7-11) draw attention, to continuity. The poem is being still read continues to live and the poet in ceasing to be a physical being taken on the affective value of poetry.

Critical Note- (1) The whole poem is a “conscious controversion” the traditional conventions of the pastoral ‘elegy. Nature is totally unaffected. Wolves ran on through the. evergreen forests, quite away in his illness. “The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays”. Since his poems are still being read, they continue to live, they are immortal. (“By mourning tongues/The death of the poet was kept from his poems”). The interest of the public in Yeats’s poems has not diminished in the face of the fact that he has died.

(2) Peasant River: Unsophisticated hence free and spontaneous.

(3) The opening lines are not merely observation about the period. The year of Yeats’ death itself is relevant-the year World War II broke out.

2. But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,

An afternoon of nurses and rumours;

The provinces of his body revolted,

The squares of his mind were empty,

Silence invaded the suburbs,

The current of his feeling failed he became his admirers.

Explanation with Reference to Context- These lines are from W. H. Auden’s poem entitled ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’. These lines are from the first section of the poem. There are three sections in the poem. The first section of the poem deals with the actual day of Yeats’s death, a frozen wintry day. The rivulets were frozen, the airports presented a deserted look, and “snow disfigured the public statues.” Because of bitter cold, the mercury sank on the day of Yeats’s death: all the instruments agree that it was “a dark cold day.” Nature goes on its course indifferently, without caring for the poet who has passed away. The poet is dead but his poetry lives. Art is not affected by the death of the artist Auden thus stresses the permanence of art. He also suggests that the art of a man has its own independent existence. The death of the artist does not affect the evaluation of his art. His art will have value according to his admires.

So far as Yeats was concerned, it was the last afternoon of his life. After that he died. In the afternoon nurses in the hospital moved here and there. Yeats’s condition was serious, Some said his condition was serious, others declared that Yeats was dead. Then in metaphysical conceit, Yeats is called an emperor, and the body, his empire. His mind and body revoked against his authority, with the result that dissolution and disintegration set in. First, the outlying parts of his empire i.e. his hands and feet became numb and insensitive and then this numbness spread over the rest of the body. He became unconscious and so “the current of feeling” failed. He was dead. The poet as a ‘person’, as a human being, died. His poetry will live on, but it shall be what others think of it. It shall undergo transformation through the successive interpretations and evaluations of his readers. He will be, or rather his poetry will be, what his admirers make of it. The poet on ceasing to be a physical human being. takes on the affective value.

3. Now he is scattered among a hundred cities

And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections;

To fled his happiness in another kind of wood

And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.

The words of a dead man

Are modified in the guts of the living,

But in the importance and noise of tomorrow

When the brokers are roaring like beast on the floor of the bourse,

And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed.

And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom;

A few thousand will think of this day

As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.

O all the instruments agree

The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Explanation with Reference to Context- These lines are from W. H. Auden’s poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Year’s. It is an elegy. The poet is mourning the death of his fellow poet W. B. Yeats. However, it is different from the traditional elegies. Nature is shown as unaffected by the poet’s death. The course of nature runs as usual. The poet describes the death of the poet in a matter of fact way. Everything in nature went on as usual. Nature was not affected by the death of the poet. Auden thus reserves, and treats ironically, the convention of pastoral elegy which shows all nature mourning the death. Here nature goes on its course indifferently, without carrying for the poet who has passed away. Wild animals behaved in their normal manner. They ran through the green forests. The river flowing through the countryside was not attracted by the changes in harbours. It flowed as usual. The poet died and his death was mourned by the world. But his poems, his art, will live, on, His art will now be judged by his admires. His admires. will now interpret his art. Thus the poet has now transformed according to the interpretations of admirers.

The poet is dead. Henceforth he will be what his admires on of him and his poetry. His poetry is spread far and wide over the countries of the world like the ashes of the dead. His poetry will be read in different parts of the world by people unknown to him. He is now entirely at the mercy of people who are strangers. Now they will modify his poetry according to their likes and dislikes. His poetry will be judged by rules of conduct and art, quite unknown to the poet. The poetry of a dead poet like Yeats is changed and transformed by the interpretations which are put upon it by his readers.

Thus even his poetry does not live on, as it is; even it undergone a subtle, slow transformation. Just as his body is ‘transformed’ by the grave, so his poetry is ‘transformed by his readers. His readers Judge his poetry according to their own likes and dislikes. The poetry personality cannot now influence their juggernaut of his poetry. Henceforth his poetry will have an independent existence. It will live on its merits. People in different parts of the world will read it. Some will like it. Some may not like it. Henceforth, he will be what the people think of him and his poetry. Thus his poetry will be modified by the living, though his poetry could neither change the course of nature nor the course of human life. Economic activities in the Stock Exchange at Paris and elsewhere go on as usual. The poor are still poor and suffer. The poor people are accustomed to their life a sufferings and poverty and there is no change in their condition. People are as selfish as before. They think that this is their freedom. They do not mix with people of other lands. Only a few admirers of Yeats will miss him. They will remember their dear friend and beloved poet. They will think of the loss of a great poet they so admired. The rest of the world will not bother about Yeats’s death. They will go their usual round of activities. The day on which Yeats died was an intensely cold day as shown by all the temperature recording instruments. The last two lines of this section-“O all the… cold day” constitute the elegiac refrain-a repetition of lines five and six of the poem.

4. You were silly like us: your gift survived it all;

The parish of rich women, physical decay,

Yourself, mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.

Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,

For poetry makes nothing happen:

…………………….. it survives

In the valley of its saying where executives

Would never want to tamper, it flows south

From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs.

Raw towns that we believe and die in: it survives,

A way of happening a mouth.

Explanation with Reference to Context- These lines are from W.H. Auden’s poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats. These lines constitute the second section of the poem. The first section describes the wintry afternoon of Yeast’s death. The second section is quite short. There are only ten lines in it. This section more close to the poet’s life and is expressive of his many conflicts and conflicting loyalties and aspirations. The poet’s resentment against the growing disabilities of age, his involvement in the Irish nation movement and his poetic desires are referred to in this section.

In this short second section Auden Points that Yeats was in the way an exceptional individual. Auden says that Yeats was silly all others. He had all the usual human weaknesses. He exploited women. He had Lady Gregory as his patron. His personality had his own weakness and absurdities, but he survived these all through the permanence of his poetry. “Mad Ireland had hurt him into poetry.” Yeats had devoted much of his poetic and personal time to trying to help into being the kind of ideal Irish republic he dreamt of. He wrote about Irish people and their lot. Auden emphasizes almost brutally how little practical effect even the greatest poetry has on history: “Poetry makes nothing happen.” Poetry does not change history. Auden says that Yeats’ poetry could not change the desire of the Irish People. They still have their madness and their weather. In spite of all efforts made by Yeats no change came in their social or political life. As a matter of fact, poetry can make nothing happen. It, no doubt, survives the death of the poet, but it survives not for what the poet has said, but for the way in which he said it. It is the language. the art, the manner. “The mouth”, which is important, and not the manner or the content.

Critical Note- (1) The Parish of rich women- Yeats’s genius survived what many would have seen as the hazard of association with the Irish aristocracy, lady patrons of the arts and lady politician, eg. Lady Gregory, Maud Gonne, Olivia Shakespeare, Dorothy Wellesley.

(2) Physical Decay- is one of the difficult themes which Yeats later poetry handles superbly.

(3) Lines 39-40- To describe what he sees as the unsophisticated, pioneer, impractical art of poetry, Auden uses the image of American rather than European landscape. He had recently settled in the United States.