This document provides instructions and discussion for an English literature class. It announces that a paper is now due on Saturday and provides citation guidelines. It schedules a discussion of Mrs. Dalloway and possible quiz. It also organizes students into groups to discuss their paper 2 topics and give feedback. Finally, it reminds students of the homework, which is to complete the paper, read Mrs. Dalloway, and make a discussion post. Participation points are available for in-class contributions.

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

2. Business / Participation
Do you want an extra day for Paper 2?
You got it. Now due SATURDAY, June 9, by noon.
◦ 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.
◦ Be sure you check the slides from Thursday of Week 8 (May 31) for details on
writing a good thesis, what to do with your body paragraphs, and how to explain
your quotes well.
◦ Please don’t make me track you down.
Mrs. Dalloway for Tuesday. Read about half of it. There could be a quiz. If
you don’t have the Norton 9th, you will have to find a copy of this
elsewhere.
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. One final pass at the ending of The Waste Land
Why????
“Plot” summary for V: What the Thunder Said
There now seems to be a protagonist—
identified by some critics as a “questing knight.”
Travels through the dry, dry (mythical) mountains:
--unfriendly
--dangerous and scary
--hallucinates(?) a spectral presence alongside
Arrives at the Chapel Perilous from the Holy Grail legend.
--“Then a damp gust / Bringing rain” (394-95)
--It seems possible that the quest is complete!
--It’s raining again! The Waste Land will be healed!
--Maybe. But the “narrative” suddenly shifts.

4. We’re suddenly near the Ganges river (in India) and there is a storm brewing over the
Himalayas. The Thunder speaks. And what does it say?
It turns out the Thunder speaks Sanskrit.
And it references an ancient fable from the Upanishads.
DATTA: “give” (401-10)
Then there is a poetic meditation on how giving something (love?) in a
“moment’s surrender” is the meaning of our existence.
DAYADHVAM: “sympathize” (411-417)
The poetic speaker describes the horror of being locked alone in a
prison—which is a metaphor for the self.
DAMYATTA: “control” (418-23)
There is a surprisingly buoyant and moving description of how a boat
responds to firm control and how a person’s heart does too.
Why are we still
talking about
this poem?!?

5. The Ending
After the Thunder speaks, we spend one last moment with the Fisher King.
--“I sat upon the shore / Fishing with the arid plain behind me” (424-25)
--Maybe it hasn’t rained after all. The plain is still “arid.”
--Wait, the Waste Land still exists? It seems so.
Final Stanza:
--As I noted last time, each of the first four lines of the final stanza is an allusion that calls
back to a theme from the rest of the poem.
--“These fragments I have shored against my ruins” (431)
Levenson: The poetic speaker is unifying the fragments—attempting to hold
himself together.
--“Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe” (432)
Paraphrase from Cleanth Brooks:
“What I’m about to tell you will sound crazy, but I know what I’m doing.”
In other words, what follow are the poetic speaker’s/questing knight’s final words for us.
Summation of what he’s learned? Advice for living in the Waste Land?
“Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyatta.
Shantih shantih shantih” (433-34)
We’re done,
right?

6. Late Yeats / Late 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: “Surely some revelation is at
hand”
◦ he has gotten old: “An aged man is but a paltry
thing” (I’ll say.)
Famous lines from late Yeats?
◦ things fall apart; the centre cannot hold
◦ the best lack all conviction
◦ what rough beast […] slouches towards Bethlehem
◦ no country for old men
◦ How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Why this Eliot poem?

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. 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.

10. “September 1, 1939” (2688-91)
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?

11. 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?

12. 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.”

13. 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.)

14. Homework
Paper 2 is due on SATURDAY by noon.
Read Mrs. Dalloway (at least the first half) by
Tuesday. There could be a quiz.
Discussion post on Dalloway.
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.