“In Memory of W. B. Yeats” is an elegiac poem. Traditionally, elegiac poems deal with the memory of the death and his after-life. However, W. H. Auden adds another dimension to it. In addition to lauding the poetic after-life of Yeats’, he placed his poem in the present. At the time when Auden wrote “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”, an impending catastrophe, World War II was waiting Europe. The sense of oppression is present throughout the poem. Each of the three parts of the poem represents a specific stage of the poet’s life.
The first part illustrates Yeats’ death; the second part gives an overview of Yeats’ early life and the third part speaks highly of Yeats and discusses the inspiration Auden drew from him. The first part consists of five stanzas. Though the form is not consistent, the content embraces emotions tightly: the first stanza is on the death and coldness, the second on the contrast between life and death, the third on the Yeats’ sufferings before death, and fourth on the physical death and spiritual immortality, and the fifth on the Auden’s concern about the times.
The first stanza impresses readers with “death” and “cold”.
In the first line, “disappeared” is an euphemism for “died” and at the same time forms alliteration with “dead”, “deserted”, “disfigured”, “dying”, “day”, “death”, “dark” and “day”, all of which give readers a sense of death and bleakness. In the last line, it seems that the nature coincidentally pities the death of Yeats’-“a dark cold day“.
Nonetheless, the second stanza contrasts with the first stanza. Nature doesn’t seem to be concerned about Yeats’ death. “The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests” and “the peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays”.
The indifference of nature sets off the attachment of people (introduced here by the synecdoche “mourning tongues”) towards Yeats. Though the poet died, people seek comfort from his poems. Even if Yeats can live forever, his poems, separated from his death by “mourning tongues”, can “live” eternally. The third stanza stands out with its geographical terms, which are undertones of the war. On the one hand, describing the dying of Yeats with geographical terms reminds reader that poems present rather than describe. On the other hand, the geographical terms and the images of a city imply the fall of Barcelona, which happened not long before.
Yeats and his poems continue to live on in people’s mind? That’s why “he became his admirers”. And in this way they become the one. The fourth stanza informs readers that different people can have different interpretation of Yeats’ poems. Although he has died, Yeats still lives on in our feelings and emotions. The last stanza extends to the future. The rich (Bourse is a symbol of the rich) and the poor go on to live in their own worlds. The meanings of Yeats’ poems will be forgotten or lost due to the reason that only a few thousand people will consider the day of Yeats’ death as “slightly unusual”, which is an understatement.
The last two lines is the repetition of the last two lines of the first stanza, which gives emphasis to the grief and pity people feel for Yeats’ death. As for the second part, it summarizes the transition period of Yeats and digs deep into the nature of poetry. The form of the poem becomes more unified. The metrical form is iambic hexameter and the rhyming scheme is more regular, which indicates Yeats’ poetic techniques are growing more refined. This stanza reveals to the readers the reasons for which Yeats wrote poems and arouses readers’ sympathy for them.
The conflicts between Ireland and England placed Yeats in a miserable situation, which forced him to write poetry. Nevertheless, no matter how beautiful his poems are, they are useless, from Auden’s point of view, in that they are not able to change the reality. Even if poems cannot contribute to the happenings of any events, “it survives ? In the valley of its making”. In other words, it exists as a form of arts. Poems are drawn from “ranches of isolation”, which reflects the isolation between people in modern society.
Poems are also drawn from “the busy griefs” owing to the fact that people suffer from grief everyday at that time. The detachment of nature in the first part foreshadows for the idea of second part, that is, poetry as arts has its own value-“A way of happening”. The third part is composed of six stanzas. In each stanza there are generally two rhyming couplets with iambs. The rhyming scheme is mostly “aabbcc”, more regular compared to the previous two parts. It can be understood that this is a period when Yeats’ poetic techniques reached perfection.
In the first stanza, the earth is personified. Auden appeals to the earth to accept Yeats’ body, pointing out that Yeats’ death is a great loss to Ireland. The “vessel” here has three meanings. The first one is “a big boat”, implying the greatness of Yeats. The second one is “a container”, indicative of Yeats’ gift for writing poems. The third one is “blood-vessel”, signifying Yeats has Irish blood, which is a symbol of passion and freedom. If the first stanza is conversation between Auden and the earth, these two stanzas would be a conversation between Auden and the times.
In the second and third stanza, the author shifted his focus to then-current issues. It is known that this poem was written several months before World War ? broke out. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand Auden’s extreme concern about the state of issues. He described the approaching war as the “intellectual disgrace”, the countries preparing for the war as “dogs of Europe bark”. The last three stanzas can be seen as the “climax” of the poem. Auden spoke to Yeats, asking him to leave the essence of poetry behind him and hoping to seek inspiration from him.
It paints a vivid picture of Auden, out of respect, bowing his head towards Yeats. These three stanzas elaborate a belief that the poet cannot change the world but he can persist in his singing of the world and create his own world as beautiful as the vineyard (Auden alluded to the stories of Genesis in Bible) however terrible the situation is. The production of literary arts can counteract its unfavorable surroundings. Auden contended that reality was unsuccessful and distressful. A better world will come into being. Nonetheless, it has to survive the “desert” and to praise “frozen sea”.
In the last two lines, Auden juxtaposed “prison” and “free”, calling the poet to “Teach the free man how to praise”. The ending “inscribes” a perfect epitaph for Yeats. Moreover, Auden also expressed his wishes and determination to pursue after the perfection of his poetic techniques, considering Yeats as a benchmark. He himself also aspired to “Make a vineyard of verse”. To conclude, Auden’s lamentation for Yeats’ death is actually the lamentation for the times. His praise for Yeats’ poems is the praise for literary arts. And his reflection upon Yeats’ life is a reflection on and an outlook for himself.
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