Slides for Day 18 in ELIT 46C

1. ELIT 46C
Day 18
WHAT CAN POETRY DO IN A DARK, DARK WORLD?

2. Business / Participation
Paper 2 due Saturday by noon on Canvas.
◦ Please don’t make me track you down.
◦ There is a handout (linked to in the assignment
prompt) on how to cite poetry and plays. I
expect you to know how to do this.
Mrs. Dalloway for Tuesday. Read about half of
it. There could be a quiz.
20th Century Poetry Performance sign-up.
Participation for today: 5 total possible.
◦ 2 individual points (1 point for saying 1 thing).
◦ 1 point for Auden group work
◦ 2 points for constructive participation in the
Paper 2 group work activity.

3. Late Yeats and Eliot
Both Yeats and Eliot for today are from the
1920s: aftermath of WWI.
Quite a bit of darkness here—especially in the
later Yeats.
◦ apocalypse is coming
◦ he has gotten old
Famous lines from late Yeats?
Why this Eliot poem?

4. Auden’s bio (and world)
1907-1973
--Born in York, England; educated at Oxford.
Berlin in 1928-29.
--Taught in English public (private) schools from
1930-35.
--Ongoing sexual friendship with writer
Christopher Isherwood from 1927-39.
1937: Seven weeks in Spain, hoping to volunteer
in the Civil War (on the side of the Republic).
--Moved to New York in 1939 (seeing the war
coming).
1939: Fell in love with Chester Kallman; together
until 1941. Lived together as friends for most of
the rest of Auden’s life.
1940: recovered his Christian faith.
1947: Pulitzer Prize in poetry
--From Wikipedia: “From 1947 to 1957 he
wintered in New York and summered in Ischia;
from 1958 until the end of his life he wintered in
New York (in Oxford in 1972–73) and summered
in Kirchstetten, Austria.”
Europe in the late 30s:
1. Spanish Civil War (fascist-led
army [supported by Nazis]
overthrowing a democratic
Republic).
◦ many leftist artists were upset
about this: Hemingway, Picasso.
2. Build-up to WW2.

5. But should we be reading these poems at all?
Later in his life, Auden either disowned or significantly revised all three poems that we read for
today.
This raises some questions:
◦ Should we read these versions of the poems? Must we look away from them?
◦ Are we ethically required to honor an author’s requests?
◦ If we’re allowed to read them, how should we read them? Do we read them as drafts? Youthful
mistakes?
◦ Or should we (can we) take them seriously as artistic works?
◦ Does it depend on the reasons why he disowned them?
So how (if at all) should we read these poems?

6. What is the point of poetry anyway?
Before we read “September 1, 1939,” I want us to take
a few moments to think about what poetry is supposed
to do, what it can do, or what it’s meant to do.
First, take two minutes and brainstorm to yourself:
◦ What is poetry good for?
◦ Why do people write poetry? What do they want it to do?
◦ What values should be promoted in poetry? What values
should poetry be held accountable to?
Then once you’ve come up with your list, I want you to
find 2-3 people near you and to share your lists. Explain
what you mean.
If you do this, give yourself 1 participation point.

7. “September 1, 1939”
Plot summary—stanza by stanza.
What is this poem saying?
What is this poem doing?
Which of our possibilities (the values, purposes, function of poetry) is Auden working with here?

8. Why did Auden disown this poem?
“We must love one another or die” (88)
Auden: “Some poems which I wrote and,
unfortunately, published, I have thrown out
because they were dishonest, or bad-
mannered, or boring. […] A dishonest poem is
one which expresses, no matter how well,
feelings or beliefs which its author never felt
or entertained.”
Tried to revise to “We must love one another
and die.”
◦ How does this change the meaning?
◦ What does it suggest that Auden was bothered
by?
◦ How might this make it more honest?

9. Auden’s Critique of Poetry
From “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”:
“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.” (36-41)
What is this saying?
How might it relate to “September 1, 1939”?
◦ Is this poem trying to make something happen? I
think it is. What?
◦ Connection/solidarity between the ”ironic points
of light”
◦ A plan: to love each other (or die).
◦ To tell the truth (“undo the folded lie”)
But doesn’t all of this assume that this will
make things happen?
After the war, Auden regularly defended his
claim that “poetry makes nothing happen,” by
saying that his poetry didn’t “save a single
Jew.”

10. Paper 2 Group Chat
Split into groups of five.
Talk about which prompt you are going to
write about for Paper 2.
Talk about what you think you want to say.
Give each other feedback or suggestions.
Be helpful and constructive!
(If you participate constructively, give yourself
2 participation points.)
Read Mrs. Dalloway for Tuesday. There could
be a quiz.