An Interpretation of W.H. Auden, “Song”
W.H. Auden’s poem “Song” is set in a city, and is seen from the point of view of a first person narrator describing his observations while going for a walk in the evening. Down by a river he hears a lover singing a very romantic ballad about his deep and never-ending love. Then the clocks in the city begin to ring, as if to tell the lover that time passes inexorably, whether he likes it or not. Not even love can prevent people from ageing and eventually dying, the clocks day.
In this poem there are in fact three different speakers. The first person narrator who is observing it all is like a neutral frame on both sides of the two other speakers – the lover and the clocks. These two, however, are not neutral at all, as they are stating two completely contrary ideas; whether love is stronger than time, or if time is unconquerable.
The lover represents romanticism and the rather naïve idea that love can last forever. This is a sympathetic thought, but perhaps not very realistic.
In many respects the lover’s song seems rather banal in its absolute declaration that love is the strongest power by far. Perhaps Auden has tried to make a little fun of earlier, romantic ballads with a similarly exaggerated faith in the power of love, using the lover’s song to parody these ballads.
For instance, many of the expressions in the lover’s song song remind us of the famous love poem “My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose” by Robert Burns. The lover in Auden’s poem mentions events which are, to put it mildly, very unlikely to happen, and maintains that until these events have taken place his love will continue: “I’ll love you till the ocean / Is folded and hung up to dry / And the seven stars go squawking / Like geese about the sky.”
This might be seen as an echo of Burns’ poem, where the same technique is used: “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear / And the rocks melt wi’ the sun / And I will love thee still, my dear / While the sands o’ life shall run.”
The lover’s song might be said to be very absolute in its tribute to love, but the clocks’ answer is not less categorical. They claim that nothing, neither love nor anything else, can conquer Time. Almost threateningly the clocks state that Time – or Death – will always be suspended over you like the sword of Damocles, a menace from which it is impossible to escape. No one knows when “…Time will have his fancy / To-morrow or to-day”, which means that no one can foretell * when * Death will strike. That it eventually * will * strike, however, is beyond any doubt.
According to the clocks, you never can feel safe from Time. Although you may be young and think you have a long, happy life in front of you, this is by no means a matter of course. You might just as well be very young as extremely old the day “Time will have his fancy”. To support this fact the clocks say: “Into many a green valley / Drifts the appalling snow”, which might symbolize young life suddenly interrupted by death.
This idea of never being safe, not even in the most “secure” surroundings, is particularly clear in the famous stanza “The glacier knocks in the cupboard / The desert sighs in the bed / And the crack in the tea-cup opens / A lane to the land of the dead”. Domestic objects like cupboards, beds and cracked tea-cup, which usually connote safety, are here connected to words like “glacier” and “desert”, which in their turn give connotations to unpleasant things like cold and draught. This way we once again get a feeling of something threatening, disturbing the apparent safety.
In another stanza Auden goes even further and shows that not even the old, established folk tales and nursery rhymes are reliable. The clocks describe the “land of the dead” by turning phrases from an old counting song and a fairy-tale completely upside down: “… the Giant is enchanting to Jack” (Jack the Giant-Killer), “…the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer” (the Lily-white Boy in the counting song is usually regarded as Christ. Here he is a criminal youth.) Once again we see safe, everyday things turning out not to be that safe after all.
As we have seen, Auden uses a lot of imagery to support his motif. And their common denominator has mostly something to do with water, an ancient, almost clichéed symbol of Time.
The word “snow” is used to describe the interruption of young life, the word “glacier” to symbolize the threat of Time. In a stanza the poem says “Vaguely life leaks away” as if Life were a sea or a river. And finally, in the last stanza there actually is a reference to a river. This time it is not the clocks that are using this imagery, but the neutral “I”-narrator. After the clocks have stopped ringing, he observes that “the deep river ran on”. Probably this line should be interpreted as an image of Life, or Time, inexorably passing by. It is no longer the clocks that are claiming this, but instead this is being observed by the neutral observer and presented as a fact. In this way we clearly see that this is the theme, and also the point, of the poem.
This is emphasized earlier in the poem as well, with another kind of imagery. In the very first stanza the crowds upon the pavement are described as “fields of harvest wheat”. This of course gives connotations to people standing or walking very close to each other, just like wheat in a field. But it also gives associations to what happens to the corn when time has come for harvesting. Just as the wheat is waiting for the reaper to come and cut it down, the crowds upon the pavement – and any human being – must also expect the eventual arrival of their reaper; the Grim Reaper… or Death!
Beside Auden’s use of imagery in his poem, he also has many allusions (indirect references) to certain literary traditions, and it is interesting to see what kind of sources he chooses to use. Many of Auden’s predecessors have used lots of references to classical works, like for instance Greek and Roman literature. This might work if the readers have knowledge of these classical works, but for others such references might fall to the ground.
Auden, on the other hand, chooses references to which the common man can relate. The poem in itself is written in the same way as many old ballads. And, as mentioned before, Auden uses well-known nursery rhymes and folk tales as a basis for several allusions. This way his poem may be read by all kinds of people with a minimum of knowledge about English culture, with no risk that the allusions might escape them.
To conclude it all; by using imagery like water and rivers to symbolize Time, beside references to literary traditions the common man should be familiar with, Auden substantiates what is the moral, or conclusion, of his poem. He wants to say that Time passes – no matter what you do. According to Auden, the romantic idea that love can conquer time is a mere illusion.
This text was originally written as a home essay during my basic course in English Language, Literature and Civilization at the University of Oslo in 1989.
© 1989
An Interpretation of Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush”
Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Darkling Thrush” was written at the turn of our century – at a time when many felt that big changes were taking place in the world. They thought that this “death of the old century” might indicate the beginning of a new, colder and less hopeful era. This pessimistic view makes up the background to the thoughts described in this poem.
The first of the four stanzas describes a frosty winter day. By the words used to describe the setting it is easy to see that Hardy wants to create an atmosphere of bleakness and death. For instance, he uses adjectives like “spectre-grey” and “desolate” in his description of the winter landscape. Moreover, the intention of the phrase “the weakening eye of day” is perhaps to give the impression of the fading and dying away of light, to be substituted by the cold, dead darkness.
Beside the description of nature, Hardy also mentions human beings in the last two lines of the first stanza. Just like the landscape, they too are described almost as if they were half dead. The people who live in the surroundings of the setting are called “all mankind that haunted nigh”. In other words, by the choice of words we clearly understand that people are regarded as not much more than ghosts.
After this description of the setting in the first stanza the poet moves further in the next one and begins to comment upon its actual meaning, concluding that this dead landscape might be seen as a symbol of the death of the whole century, and therefore also of a whole era: “The land’s sharp features seemed to be / The Century’s corpse outleant”. The heavy overhanging clouds function as a crypt for the dead era, and the blowing wind is singing “his death-lament”.
The last two lines of the second, commenting stanza – just as in the first one – concentrate on mankind, and once again it is described as half-dead and apathetic: “And every spirit upon earth / Seemed fervourless as I”. The narrator feels no passion and thinks all people think similarly.
Then, in the third stanza, there is a turning point. After this commenting passage the poet goes back to the descriptive mode of the first stanza. As a contrast to the hopeless and pessimistic atmosphere created in the preceding stanzas, Hardy lets a thrush start singing. The bird seems to ignore the bleak surrroundings and their depressive atmsophere entirely and chirps joyfully and full-hearted its “evensong”; it “Had chosen to fling his soul / Upon the growing gloom”.
In the fourth and final stanza Hardy follows the same pattern that he used in the first two passages, commenting upon the preceding descriptive stanza. At the beginning the narrator claims pessimistically that there is no reason to sing as joyfully as the thrush does, at least not judging by visible evidence; the whole atmosphere indicates gloom and hopelessness: “So little cause for carolings / Of such ecstatic sound / Was written on terrestrial things / Afar or nigh around”.
But then he starts wondering whether the fact that the bird apparently is so full of joy despite all the gloomy signs might mean that it knows that everything is not hopeless after all, even though it may seem so. Perhaps the bird’s song could mean that hidden somewhere there existed some “blessèd Hope, whereof he knew”, but which the narrator has not grasped – at least not yet.
The message of the poem could therefore be that although the times apparently are becoming gloomier and bleaker, the situation is not completely hopeless. Hope is still not dead.
Throughout the poem music plays an important role as a part of the imagery. Most obvious is probably the use of the bird’s song, which becomes an important symbol of the hope that still exists. However, also in the first stanza there is a reference to music. The tangled stems of the trees are described as “strings of broken lyres”. In this stanza, in other words, there is an allusion not to the creation of music, but to the destruction of it. The imagery suits the pessimistic stanza well, since it, on the symbolic level, might be seen as the destruction of Hope. Later, however, in the third stanza, the hopeful music is revived by the thrush, as we have seen. Also in the second stanza there is an allusion to music, but here it is not hopeful and optimistic – on the contrary. The “death-lament” of the century indicates the end of Hope, and the beginning of a new, gloomy age.
Besides, the whole poem is written in a manner which gives associations to a ballad. It has a regular metre (iambic heptametre) and the four octave stanzas may be subdivided into eight quatrains, each with the rhyme pattern abab, which is typical of this kind of songs. Other musical effects in the poem is the use of alliteration – e.g. “dregs made desolate”, “scored the sky” and “growing gloom”. Perhaps the poet by using these effects wants to give further evidence that there actually does exist some hope.
The first impression one often gets by reading this poem is that this is a pessimistic description of the new ear many people thought they were on their way into at the time that the poem was written. The first two stanzas really give a rather gloomy pictury of the contemporary scene, and if the poet had decided to use only these two passages everybody would surely agree that this was a remarkably pessimistic piece of poetry. But, on the other hand, in that case most people would probably not have thought that the poem was particularly good; it would lack the dialectical aspects that often signify a good poem.
By letting the bird start singing in the third stanza, Hardy opens up for the possibility that there may perhaps be some hope after all, which makes the poem much more balanced. Of course, if one reads the poem with a very down-to-earth attitude, one could argue that the singing of a thrush naturally does not mean that the bird is happy – it only states what is its property. However, the fact that the bird’s song makes the narrator wonder whether there may be some hope after all, might indicate that there actually is! As long as people still are open for this idea, the situation can probably not be said to be totally hopeless.
So, even though most of the poem is preoccupied with the gloomy atmosphere at the turn of the century, it sets a tone of hope at the end. This might indicate that we should look at the “new era” with reservedly optimistic eyes.
This text was originally written as a school exam during my basic course in English Language, Literature and Civilization at the University of Oslo in 1989.
© 1989
My Songs
In the late 80s/early 90s I made a few pop songs/ballads on my own (in English, of course). Although they're filled with the sensitivity and sentimentality of a person in his early twenties, I still think some of them aren't really that bad.
Here I Am
Chorus:
Am Cmaj7
Here I am, here I am, here I am
Fmaj7
Can't you see me
And the pain in my eyes?
Am Cmaj7
Just one word, just one smile, just one touch
Fmaj7
Is what I ask for
Look, I'm right by your side
Am
Nothing hurts more
Fmaj7 Em
Than a passion that's never returned
Am
After twenty-odd years
Fmaj7 Em
That's a lesson I've gradually learned
Fmaj7
I've been trying so hard
Gsus6
To get through to you
Fmaj7
But it's always in vain
Em
No matter what I do
Fmaj7
You look right through me
As if I weren't there
Chorus
Am Fmaj7
Just like an overripe apple
Em
Longing to be picked
Am Fmaj7
My unsatisfied desire
Em
Hurts so I feel sick
Fmaj7
I want you so much
Gsus6
It's tearing me apart
Fmaj7
How can I possibly satisfy
Em
This desperate heart?
Fmaj7
I'm crying out in pain
Gsus6
You don't hear
Chorus
© 1990
The Right Size
Amaj7
Sometimes before I go to bed
Dmaj7
I save a prayer and wish that I could get
Amaj7 Dmaj7
The right size, the right size
Amaj7
My memories of you come by
Dmaj7
You were so tall you almost touched the sky
Amaj7 Dmaj7
You had the right size, the right size
Cmaj7 Fmaj7
You saw across the seas
G
Flew higher than the bees
Em
While I looked up at you
Cmaj7
And wished I were there too
Fmaj7
I stretched towards the sky
G
And begged to reach as high
Em
As all those mighty trees
Amaj7 Dmaj7 G
And not just to your knees
Amaj7
Nobody knows before
Dmaj7
The sun is set if he will get
Amaj7 Dmaj7
The right size, the right size
Amaj7
What goes up has to come down
Dmaj7
And with a brutal force hit the ground
Amaj7 Dmaj7
Without the right size, the right size
Cmaj7 Fmaj7
You took my hand and smiled
G
And then just for a while
Em
You'd slowly lift me up
Cmaj7
So I could reach the top
Fmaj7
The view was great up there
G
But also made me scared
Em
'Cause when you get too tall
Dmaj7
The harder you will fall
Fm
And I'm asking and dying to know
Dmaj7 Fm
If I ever really am going to grow
Fmaj7
Could it be that I'll forever
Am
Stay here on the ground below
Fmaj7
Never reach a higher level
Am
Never go where you could go
Fmaj7
What it might be like in heaven
Em Dmaj7 Fm
Am I ever going to know?
Dmaj7
I'm dying to know
Fm Cmaj7 Fmaj7 G Em Cmaj7
When will I know?
Fmaj7
See across the seas
G
Fly higher than the bees
Em Cmaj7
And all those mighty trees
Fmaj7
When will it be?
G
Don't ask me
Em
Don't ask me
Cmaj7
'Cause I don't know
© 1991
The First Time
C Cmaj7
The first time I saw you
Fmaj7
I just knew you were the one
C
I've been looking for all my life
Cmaj7
A certain conviction
Fmaj7
That it was all gonna be all right
C Cmaj7 Fmaj7
Then I just knew (la la la la la)
C
That it had to be you
Cmaj7
Or no one
Fmaj7
It's as simple as that
You're the only thing worth living for
Dm G
That's how it is
C
It's so plain to see
Cmaj7
And so elementary
Dm G
That's how it is
C
And will be
Dm G
Yes, that's how it is
C
It's so plain to see
Cmaj7
And so elementary
Dm G
That's how it is
C E
And that's how it always will be
Dm G
'Cause how could I think
C
That I was really living
Cmaj7
When I was just existing
Dm G
Yes, how could I be
C
Without you?
© 1992
What's Your Secret?
F G
You always have this distant air
Am
There's something about you
Em
Something about you
F G Am Em
As if you're from another world
F G
Your face it is so delicate
Am
As pale as the moon
Em
As pale as the moon
F G
And glows the same mysterious way
Chorus:
Am C
What lies behind
Dm F G
That inscrutable look you sometimes get?
Am C
What do you see?
Dm
Would you tell me?
F G
Tell me what's your secret?
F G
You look as if you might possess
Am
Knowledge of something
Em F
Knowledge of something
G Am Em
Beyond what others may conceive
F G
I sense it in your deep, dark eyes
Am
A curious enigma
Em F
A curious enigma
G
A world just you can look into
Chorus
Em
How I wish that I could get
F Dm G
Some of this knowledge too
Chorus
© 1989
From My Window
Am
From my window
Fmaj7
I look down on the street
Am
So many people I've never met
Fmaj7
And will never meet
Chorus:
C
Oh, I don't really know
Fmaj7
What is coming over me
C
My heart is working overtime
Fmaj7
Begging to be set free
C Fmaj7
From what I don't know
Em
I really can't tell
Fmaj7 G
But I can't see
C Cmaj7 Am
That the scene outside goes on without me
Fmaj7 G
From my window
Am
From my window
Fmaj7
I then turn away
Am
To the little room behind the curtains
Em
Where I usually stay
Chorus
© 1990
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