Consider Auden As an Anti-Romantic Poet. 

Answer

Consider Auden as an anti-romantic poet. [2019]  

Anti-romanticism means rejection of emotion, imagination, and the ideal beauty of Romantic poets. Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Keats believed in nature, love, and dreams. But W. H. Auden (1907–1973) was different. He looked at life with modern eyes. His poetry shows reason, not emotion. He speaks about war, suffering, sex, fear, and the real human condition. 

Anti-Romantic View of Love in “Lullaby”: Auden’s idea of love is realistic. He joins body and soul together. Love is not divine, but human. He writes,  

“Soul and body have no bounds.” 

This line rejects the old Romantic idea that love is only spiritual. His lover is “mortal, guilty,” not pure like Shelley’s or Keats’s beloved. The setting is night, not paradise. It is full of truth, not a dream. Love gives warmth, not salvation. This shows his anti-romantic realism. 

Death and Realism in “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”: In this poem, Auden writes about Yeats’s death in a cold and lifeless world. He says, 

“He disappeared in the dead of winter.” 

The image is gloomy and frozen. Romantic poets used to glorify death, but Auden makes it ordinary and cold. He also shows that poetry does not remain pure or timeless. Poetry changes with people and history. The feeling is calm and factual, not emotional or dreamy. 

Loss of Beauty and Faith in “The Shield of Achilles”: Auden uses the myth of Thetis, Hephaestos, and Achilles to show the loss of beauty in the modern world. Thetis hopes to see peace and joy, but finds horror. She looks “for vines and olive trees” but sees instead “an artificial wilderness.” This scene contrasts sharply with Romantic beauty. Auden’s world has,

“A million eyes, a million boots in line.” 

Love and beauty die in this cruel modern world. His tone is bitter, not dreamy.

Harsh Reality of Human Suffering in “Musée des Beaux Arts”: Auden shows that human