An Historical Reflection on W.H. Auden's SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

Literature is the reflection of human ideas, feelings and memories. Reading literature is learning from the author’s point of view the reality that surrounds him and how, this reality, makes echoes in his personal life. Therefore in order to understand in a better way his feelings and ideas we must know about the historical context in which the author of a literary piece is or was writing. In the present essay I will present the importance of knowing history in order to understand in a better way literature and how all kind of literature, even poetry, can be use as a pretext in order to teach history. In this essay I will use the W. H. Auden’s ‘September 1, 1939’ as a main example.

First of all, the poem ‘September 1, 1939’ written by W. H. Auden, he is witness of the invasion of Poland and with this, the beginning of the World War II. In his poem, he presents since the very beginning his feelings of fear, hopelessness and death.

“Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.”

In the following stanzas we can see how some historical characters are named, as Martin Luther in the second stanza; His historical importance is because he initiated the Protestant Reformation in which the people of Germany separates of the Roman Catholic church giving as a reason the corruption that was taking place with the indulgences and how the Roman Catholic Church was making money using the salvation of the soul as an explanation. Even doe this was not the only reason, because Germany had a bad relationship with the people of the rest of Europe, especially with the other kingdoms, therefore following the same model of the Anglicans in England, Germany established its own national church. This separation in presented by Auden because Germany was who started the war invading Poland.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

In the classroom we need to be aware of all kind of background that the students may have, because we can say or teach something that can be misunderstood, for example: present all Germans and Protestants as the responsible of the Second World War; prejudice and bullying are, unfortunately, very present in the school. For instance we can have a German or a protestant student and the rest of the class can make fun of him because their ancestors were the “responsible” of millions of dead. Therefore we need to teach this kind of topic in a holistic way, which means that the historical fact should be presented as a piece of history that must be understood as a whole in narration of the human existence; A dark, but not less human, chapter in history.

Secondly it is mentioned the Greek philosopher Thucydides how strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, manly inspired in ancient philosophical conception of causality. Furthermore he is well know for his contribution in the analysis of political affairs and international relations as in his masterpiece “the History of the Peloponnesian War”, specially in “the Melian dialogue” (Book V) which is the keystone in the study of international relations theory which explains how the relations between countries, in peace or war, are build.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Thucydides and Auden have something in common: their work is timeless; ‘September 1, 1939’ is still contemporaneous because of the wars that are taking place in different parts of the world and “the Melian dialogue” is still used to analyze modern political relations. As the philosopher mentions once: “I (Thucydides) have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time”

As far I just had analyze two of three of the nine stanzas that the poem has and so far I had to read texts in order to comprehend the poem, as Historical texts, philosophical pieces of work, other poems in order to compare. This exercise can be emulated in the classroom with very fruitful results.

We need to be conscious about the importance of all kinds of literature because as Tzvetan Todorov wrote once: “Like philosophy and like the humanities, literature is made of thought and knowledge about the psychic and social world in which we live. The reality that literature aims to understand is, simply—yet, at the same time, nothing is more complex—human experience” . This human experience must be contextualized with historical facts, in order to create a solid bound between the reader and the writer.

In an educational perspective, teaching literature in general is imperative not just because the language that the students can acquire but also, as Todorov mentions “all this literary works, helped me to discover unknown dimensions of the world, they moved me profoundly, and they made me think”. In my personal experience I can say that W. H. Auden’s ‘September 1, 1939’ is very helpful to understand in a better way the facts that happened at the beginning of the World War II and also how the author felt about it; His feeling will live forever thanks to this poem and the example of an average citizen of England will be maintained as an example of how terrible the war is.

Bibliography:

-Todorov, Tzvetan: “What Is Literature?” New Literary History 5, no. 1 (1973). New Literary History, 2007

-Ganss, Henry. "Martin Luther." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 4 Dec. 2009 .

-Hooker, Richard. “Thucydides” www.wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/THUCY.HTM 1996- dic 2009.

-Thucydides “Thucydides ‘s quotations” http://thinkexist.com/quotes/thucydides/

Outline

An historial reflection on W.H. Auden's SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

• What is W.H. Auden's SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
• The struture of the poem
• Why Luther is presented?
• Why Thucydidesis is presented?
• What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev?
• Flian thoughts and conclution.

"September 1, 1939" by W.H Auden

[I just read Claudia's blog and I just realize that we had another blog entry for this week,
I thought that i was our assistant's task the only blog entry for the week]

"September 1, 1939" is the reflection of all W.H Auden's felling that are related to the first day of war.
I just know wars because I see them in movies a I had read about them in books, but I cannot imagine myself
situation like that in which my life is in danger and my country is under attack. I am not a violent person,

even though I play a lot of violent videogames and I enjoy watching gore films. Reaing the narration of someone's inner experience of war is a angle that I had never seen.

The poem presents several historical characters that are important for recent human history, as Martin Luther that was the creator of the national German Church (AKA protestans). Knowing about him is imperative in order to understand the poem, because it connects all European history to explain the war and also to explain how terrible it was.

Life is a circle, all the events in human history happen over and over again, we have empires that fall, sickness that destroy part of human population and countries makes wars once in a while. This is a timeless poem that I expect to teach it in my English class, as a piece of history that do not must be repeate.

Nataly's interpretation

The Waste Land by T.S Elitot is not an ordinary poem at all. It is very complex to read and quite long to be a poem. So, that is why I’ll do my best to write about my understanding of the poem.

From the very beginning of the poem with the subtitle “the burial of the dead”, I got the impression that it would be a very dark poem. This impression was even assured when I read the first line of the poem which is “APRIL is the cruellest month”. Then, as I kept reading I realized that in the first paragraph there are some contradictory concepts. A clear illustration of so, is snow and sunlight.
Let’ remember that this is a contemporary poem which was first publish in 1992, so it is highly important to take the context into account in order to make a more suitable understanding. World War I had just finished a few years before and this absolutely impacted on the whole society. It is known that eight million people die more or less during the period of time this war lasted. Therefore, men and women became disillusioned or hopeless about their own futures and the nature of humanity.

I think that Eliot tried to evoke and share that feeling of uncertainty. As if life can be vanished all of a sudden. I believe this is a complaining about the kind of lifestyle that 20th century brought. Well, there must be hundred of way of analyzing this poem. What I know for certain is that it needs to be read carefully and with time to think it over.

By Nataly Moyano

Nataly's interpretation of T.S. Eliot is inclined to uncertainty, the same feeling that I presented in my post, but I developed more (even with examples) the contradictory concepts and the references to others literatures, making this poem an eclectic representation of a period between wars. I started to think that he just wrote randomly all the words of the text, and then we all interpreted as "art", but then I re-read it (and thanks to the analysis in the classroom) I could connect some ideas that are the representation of the dadaistic movement that was born also between wars, because of the use of the words and the lack of sense that is prevailing in the poem.

Dadaism (if you don´t know) was born as a response against the cultural cannon and also as a response against the war (the WWI and WWII). I can connect the use of different languages as a reference of a cosmopolitan point of view to the world and not a chauvinist perception of it from a country that is in war. But, as Nataly presented "there must be hundred of way of analyzing this poem". In spite of this poem was written in dadaistics times, I must confess that I still found hidden meaning in its lines, maybe because T.S Eliot encrypted a timeless message into his poem about something that I cannot see... or just simple I am getting nuts because of the end of the semester.

"The Waste Land"

T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland is for many one of the most important poem of the last century, after read it I realized that was a eclectic mixture of greek and Egyptian mythology connected with references of ancient history and also to the basic element of the nature... in Latin, Greek, English and Italian.

First I was confused, didn't know where to start reading the poem and where to analysing it.

Twit twit twit
Jug jug jug jug jug jug
So rudely forc'd.
Tereu

What does it mean?!?!?!

I started to think that he just wrote randomly all the words of the text, and then we all interpreted as "art", but then I re-read it 8and thanks to the analysis in the classroom) I could connect some ideas, for example

1. The Burial of the Dead
2. A Game of Chess
3. The Fire Sermon
4. Death by Water
5. What the Thunder Said

In the titles of the chapters of the poem there are some elements that are direct references for some concepts, for example the "death by water" is a juxtaposition between the ideas of life and dead, also the hyperbole presented in "the burial of death" because the dead cannot has a burial.

T.S. Eliot presents The Wasteland as an invitation to a rich and enchanted place (another juxtaposition rich place/wasteland), a place that I can know just studding it symbols and elements, I need to reflect and I need to search in order to understand and enjoy such a great piece of art as is it The Wasteland.

D.H. Lawrence

One of the difficult things in life are human relationships, how to interact with others and how to behave in certain situation. D. H Lawrence knew this very well and he, in his writing, reflex the dichotomy of the role that society give to us between the things that we feel and we want.

“The rocking horse winner” and “Odour of Chrysanthemums” presents how people must face a difficult situation and they are not preparing for that, especially because the characters in their stories are related to mining industry.

Because of my personal experience I can understand very well to Lawrence, because being part as the first-born son of a family where a miner is the head of the family it is very difficult, especially because of the role that I should take as a Son/man of the house/student. Just as D.H. Lawrence.

To conclude I can say that these stories, especially “Odour of Chrysanthemums” are the perfect example of something that is very common between families related to mining, a labor that is the keystone of our national economy. Therefore I personally believe that should be compulsory for student to read it (in Spanish of English) I am definitively that can be very meaningful for young men as me.

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is the representation of how sexism had influenced in the literature since the very beginning. The figure of Shakespeare’s sister that she presented in her text is the reflection of all the women that had not the same opportunities than men and how they (the women) could do the same literary work than men.

I personally believe that Virginia was a brave woman because she could present her ideas in a world in which the women were underestimated, no matter Woolf's high social status or her sexual tendencies.

Unfortunately, I believe that nowadays feminism is far away from the ideals of women rights, I think that these days feminism is a new way of male chauvinism, because it is always remembering the women’s poor quality of rights and her lack of opportunism instead of having a wider point of view and seeing women as they really are: as equals as men. We must, as a society, let our gender in a secondary role and having as a protagonist the Human Existence. I trust that is the message that Virginia tried to present.

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist is the predictable story of a boy who tries to survive being a poor orphan in the Victorian age; I can declare that is a predictable story because of the feasible plot development. But being fair with the story and the author, this is a masterpiece; is the keystone for all the similar stories of poor children surviving and achieving their goals.

After watching this movie just came to my mind the image of my father; He started to work when he was fourteen and since then he had never stopped to work, a boy from the north of Chile who recollected grapes for the pisco industry who is nowadays the father of a university student. The only difference from Twist’s times is that nowadays the social status is more dynamic, but at the same time, more volatile.

This is another example of how human life was deplorable because of his new behavior against industrialization. Nowadays, at the same level as in the Victorian age.

The Signalman

After reading Charles Dickens’s Signalman I can make a comparison between the Victorian age and the Greek old times; meanwhile during the Victorian age people lived industrialization as a new way of life, the ancient Greece people’s life were ruled by their gods will. Both ideas, Industrialization and gods will has several thinks in common:

First of all, both were unstoppable forces that cannot be challenged by anyone. In the signal man we can see who the train is the representation of modernity, a giant titan of the old Greece or more closely connected with the idea of the Sanskrit idea of a Juggernaut. Secondly, the signalman had a vision of a ghost, figure that contrast with the ideas of modernity implied in the Victorian age, but are very connected with a world of fantasy and magic, as the Greek divinities.

To cut a long story short, The Signalman, is just a spectator of the dynamic world that surrounded him, a lonely man that is visited by a magic entity. Even in modern times when the science and logic are the trend, we can find signals, maybe the same ones that the old Greek thinkers saw in those times.

It's Alive!

Reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein after discovering her biography gives us a whole new perspective of her masterpiece; following that can realize the decadent world that inspired for her masterpiece. First of all, her background from an aristocrat and well educated family that crumbles down for the selfishness.

Her infamous existence and well educated background were the source for the story of a man who wanted to play god and a being that was not human, but had feelings and de innocence of one. Two outcasts, two misfits. A obvious remembrance of her life. The commemoration of her sadness as a science fiction novel, an old Greek tragedy where the powers of the goodness and the magic powers is replaced by science.

I personally believe that Mary Shelly wanted Junior’s innocence, the capacity of reborn and observe the world with brand new eyes, those eyes who were witness of her bizarre way of life

Daffodils, by Wordsworth

Daffodils, by Wordsworth is the presentation of the beauty of nature, the simplest and prettiest creation of god is being contemplated by him, it is important to realize that a poet just writes about what he feels and what is important for him, in this case, a bunch of flowers are the trigger for a whole new world perspective.

The stanza "A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company" is because this beauty is so overwhelming that he doesn’t feel alone, he is in company of the nature, as something natural and supernatural at the same time, because the idea that he presents of the flowers, the clouds and the stars. We must remember that this is a keystone in romanticism.
I personally believe that presents the idea of life, as complex as human existence, but beauty and simple as a bunch of Daffodils.

John Keats’ “When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be”

“Here lies one whose name was writ in water”

In John Keats’ poem “When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be” are presented all the fears that he had about dead and all the things that are implied in the process of passing out to the alter life.
I personally believe that he, as an artist his biggest fear was to be forgotten, because that’s why an artist presents his creations, because hi wants to live forever, not as an immortal being, but at least, in his personal work.

This is a fear that also I have, but the difference here is that I am studying a career where I have the opportunity to pass my knowledge and myself to other by education instead a poem or a song. And there is nothing wrong in that, is a human need to trespass ourselves to time and beat dead.

Coleridge´s Kubla Khan

Coleridge´s Kubla Khan is an epic and fantastic poem that presents us a fantasy world is conceived from a real land, Mongolia, but with the perception of someone who is immersed in the pleasures of opium.

For some of us, this could be something negative; the use of drugs in order to accomplish or get something from them, in this case inspiration. But for other people, this kind of inspiration for others is divine. As the word of an angel that dictates God´s will.

This divine epiphany contrast with one of the most important keystones of the romanticism: the aim to the nature and the human’s inner world. Maybe is poem is the transition between the main topics of poetry: Goddess and nature.

"The Little Black boy"

The keystone in the poem "The Little Black boy" is the dichotomy between the human and the divine, which is presented for the mother of the boy. In this poem, the mother is giving a new meaning to all the creation, giving it a divine origin, to the flowers, the beasts, the sunlight, the men and so on. She is no just presenting a divine perception of the world, she is giving a Christian perception of it, because she present the idea of lamb, that is closely connected to the jew-christian tradition.

Maybe, she is giving to his son some of her hope, the same hope that helped her to survive as a black woman in a tough society. She knows that her son will need in something to believe, because he will be a underdog because of the culture of his country.

When I saw Picasso’s “mother and child” the first thing that I thought was the moment of epiphany of the boy, when all the creation makes sense when you see it through faith eyes, just like his mother.

Palimpsest's outline

• Meaning of the idea 'palimpsest'
• Examples of it
• Repercussions in literature
• Repercussions in human life
• Conclusions

The Real World: Venice

The Merchant of Venice is a great under-rated movie from 2004 directed by Michael Radford. He didn’t just direct, but also he wrote the adaptation of this masterpiece by William Shakespeare, that is set in theXVI century.

It is in this time where Basanio asks for 3000 ducats to Shylock, a Jew who is betrayed by her very own daughter, who steal him all his money and jewelry. Shylock offers a three-month loan with no interests, but with a highly price if he doesn’t pay; subsequently Portia, Bassanio's fiancée, saves Antonio from a near death in a very unfair trial.

This is an entertain and very detailed story; so detailed that sometimes the movie -which is very accurate with the book- starts to be very slow. This deliberate and slow rhythm is necessary in order to show all the magnificent work of art that is shown in the movie; not just the choice of wardrobe that evoke the Venice from the XVI, but also the very Venice, that transports us to those times. The cast director made a good choice hiring Al Pacino to play Shylock. The same actor of “Scarface” and “Carlitos’ Way” shows us the complex character of Shylock.

Trying to explain Shylock is as hard as to explain the Merchant of Venice. It is not an easy story to understand. The complexity of the characters is so, that they don’t look as fiction characters. They look human. In fact, they look so human that you feel astonish and ashamed to be reflected on them; all the passion, the pain, the love and the deception; all this human dimensions are part of the characters, specially part of Shylock. This contrast with nowadays movies that have so flat and shaped characters, is trying to help the average viewer to realize who is the “good guy” and the “bad guy”

.

Some people call the Merchant of Venice a “Comedy”, some others call it a “Drama”, and the more sentimentals call it a “romantic tragedy”. But the thing is that it is so complex that I can not label it myself. It shows so well the human complexity with all the dimensions that are part of an entity with a soul that the gender of a Greek drama should have. However, the big difference is that in the Greek dramas all the characters had no power of choice in their acts; they are puppets of the Gods. So, for the characters of this Shakespeare play is hard, because the emotions involved make them choose sometimes the wrong choice - as we can see in Romeo and Juliet, when the young lover, Juliet, committed suicide because they thought that his loved one was dead. This was not for the gods’ fault. Instead, this was their fault because they got desperate and despondent-.

Premises like honor, loyalty and commitment were highly

important in those days, and Shakespeare used them to trigger all the tragedy in the story. Not just trying to go deep into de character, but also trying to go into the inner world of the viewer inviting us to feel and suffer along with them. If you don’t believe me, just try to watch the judge scene where Antonio is asked for the piece of meat that he promised in change of the loan that Shylock gave to him. The “sweat” in the face of Jeremy Irons transports us to that place and evoke us the pain of a nearly dead person. An experience that William Shakespeare want us to experience.

A highly recommended movie, sometimes a little bit slow, but if you are patient you will find a treasure in a lead chest. This goes to my personal collection, next to Sidney Poitier’s “To Sir, with Love” and “Back to the Future”.