seen disappearing 1. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats, born in into the sea, his wings having melted when he flew 1865, died on January 29, 1939, in Roquebrune too close to the sun. Auden also alludes to other (southern France). paintings by Brueghel: the nativity scene in The
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Th e provinces of his body revolted,
15 The squares of his mind were empty, Silence invaded the suburbs, The current of his feeling failed: he became his admirers.
Now he is scattered among a hundred cities An d wholly given over to unfamiliar affections;
20 To find his happiness in another kind of wood2 An d be punished under a foreign code of conscience. The words of a dead man Are modified in the guts of the living.
But in the importance and noise of to-morrow
25 Whe n the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,' And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed, An d each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom; A few thousand will think of this day As one thinks of a day whe n one did something slightly unusual.
30 O all the instruments agree Th e day of his death was a dark cold day.
II
You were silly like us: your gift survived it all; Th e parish of rich women,4 physical decay, Yourself; mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
35 No w Ireland has her madness and her weather still, For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives In the valley of its saying where executives Woul d never want to tamper; it flows south From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
40 Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives, A way of happening, a mouth.
IIP
Earth, receive an honoured guest; William Yeats is laid to rest: Let the Irish vessel lie
45 Emptied of its poetry.
Tim e that is intolerant Of the brave and innocent, An d indifferent in a week To a beautiful physique,
2. Cf. the beginning of Dante's Inferno: 'In the Augusta Gregory (1852?1932), provided financial middle of the journey ot our life I came to myself help to Yeats. in a dark wood where the straight way was lost' 5. The stanza pattern of this section echoes that (1.1-3). of Yeats's late poem 'Under Ben Bulben.' Auden 3. The French stock exchange. later omitted the section's second, third, and 4. Several wealthy women, including Lady fourth stanzas.
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THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN / 24 3 1
50 Worships language and forgives Everyone by who m it lives; Pardons cowardice, conceit, Lays its honours at their feet.
Tim e that with this strange excuse
55 Pardoned Kipling6 and his views, And will pardon Paul Claudel,7 Pardons hi m for writing well.
In the nightmare of the dark All the dogs of Europe bark,8 60 An d the living nations wait, Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace Stares from every huma n face, An d the seas of pity lie
65 Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, Wit h your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice;
70 With the farming of a verse Mak e a vineyard of the curse, Sing of huma n unsuccess In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
75 Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.
Feb. 1939 1939, 1940
The Unknown Citizen
To JS/07/M/378 This Marble Monument is Erected by the State
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be On e against who m there was no official complaint, An d all the reports on his conduct agree That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
5 For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
6. The British writer Rudyard Kipling (1865? conservative politics. Yeats was at times anti1936) championed imperialism. democratic and appeared to favor dictatorship. 7. French author (1868?1955) with extremely 8. World War II began in September 1939.
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Except for the Wa r till the day he retired He worked in a factory and never got fired, But satisfied his
