September 1, 1939 Flashcards
Body 1: when and what does it outline?
1939
outlines the effects of political motivation and action upon an individual and their society.
Body 1: what does Auden represent?
represents a detached narrator critiquing a society he has only just moved to be a part of.
Body 1: what is Auden involvement in this poem?
He himself has travelled to the epicentre of the Spanish Civil War to experience its brutality and is highly critical of those who apathetically watch as the world falls into another world war.
Body 1: By alluding to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany through the titular title, Auden reinforces?
his political context in what he believes was a “Low and dishonest decade”, when the world was divided physically and politically for a second time
Body 1: what did Auden see the time as?
when treaties went wrong, and the failure of western presidents and prime ministers’ appeasement policies which were unable to prevent the war
Body 1: what is similar to ‘Unknown Citizen’?
Auden demonstrates the effects of politics on society “from Luther until…what happened at Linz”, and how politics can change and “drive a culture mad”.
Body 1: what does he clarify and through what?
he clarifies, through the use of adnominatio, that even politicians cannot understand what “I and the public know…those to whom evil is done do evil in return” in order to illustrate that politics can effect an individual’s perspective of their society.
Body 1: how is it evident that politics effect indiv’s perspective?
in the use of contrast of shared political perspectives between the “neutral” America who “Cling to their average day” and apathetically ignore the imminent Second World War, and the speaker who is aware of the global conflict that could threaten all.
Body 1: what does auden convey through the metaphor?
how ignorance, seen in metaphor “Out of the mirror they stare” prevents individuals from realizing their flaws and potential for humanity to provide support and assistance for those in need of it.
Body 2: third stanza quotes?
The allusion to “Thucydides”, an Athenian historian, and symbolism of “apathetic grave”
Body 2: what does the allusion and symbolism in third stanza highlight?
highlights how dictatorships have the ability to sway a populace from a democratic mindset and how a dictatorial regime will often lead to inevitable conflicts and fatalities.
Body 2: emotive language?
“the habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again”
Body 2: how is the emotive language delivered?
acerbically delivered to portray further pain which is caused from the lack of resolution. It highlights the repetitive cycle of war
Body 2: what does Auden’s explorations of psychology of war and his bitter response to the impact of society’s apathy emphasise?
the moral and ethical injustice prevalent in today’s society
Body 2: how does he end poem?
despite such negative connotations, Auden ends the poem on a positive and hopeful note
