Brief Question in W. H. Auden’s Poems 

Brief Question in W. H. Auden’s Poems

• Who was W. H. Auden?

Ans: A leading English poet of the 20th century.

• What jobs did Auden do in America?

Ans: He taught at several schools and universities.

• How was Auden honoured in England?

Ans: He received the King’s Gold Medal in 1937.

• When was Auden awarded the Pulitzer Prize?

Ans: In 1948 for The Age of Anxiety.

• When was the poem “Lullaby” published?

Ans: It was first published in 1937.

• What is the theme of “Lullaby”?

Ans: Love despite human faults and faithlessness.

• Why does the poet-lover call his beloved “human”?

Ans: She is mortal, imperfect, and not a goddess.

• What proves the child to be ephemeral?

Ans: The grave shows life is brief.

• What does “the living creature” refer to?

Ans: It refers to the poet’s beloved.

• Who is Venus?

Ans: The Roman goddess of love and beauty.

• What is “supernatural sympathy”?

Ans: Venus’s blessing raising love to mystic height.

• How do the lovers resemble hermits?

Ans: Both seek union and spiritual ecstasy.

• What is the meaning of “Noons of dryness”?

Ans: Moments of spiritual crisis and misery.

• What does the poet mean by “human love”?

Ans: Universal love, or agape, for all.

• What does “Nights of insult” refer to?

Ans: Despair after mere physical gratification.

• How does Auden show the permanence of art?

Ans: Yeats died; his poems still live.

• How does Auden picture Yeats’s death?

Ans: Mind faded; feelings stilled; life ebbed.

• How does Auden satirize materialistic outlook?

Ans: Brokers roar for profit in noisy markets.

• What is people’s illusion about their freedom?

Ans: They feel free within ego and vanity.

• What is “the parish of rich women”?

Ans: Yeats’s flattering circle of lady admirers.

• How does Auden estimate Ireland?

Ans: Poetry changed nothing in Ireland’s conditions.

• What is “intellectual disgrace”?

Ans: Hatred bred by clashing ideologies.

• How may Yeats’s poetry help in crisis?

Ans: Bring light and joy to suffering minds.

• Who was Achilles?

Ans: Greek hero, central to the Iliad.

• What battlefield picture does Thetis see?

Ans: Dreary ranks of soldiers awaiting orders.

• What is the meaning of “a voice without a face”?

Ans: Dictators speaking by radio or loudspeaker.

• What does “the shining metal” mean?

Ans: The shield as art and human image.

• What do the “three pale figures” symbolize?

Ans: Prisoners of war bound to stakes.

• What does a “weed-choked field” symbolize?

Ans: Modern spiritual desolation and barrenness.

• Why did Hephaestus hobble away?

Ans: Lame, displeased with his finished work.

• What moral comes from “The Shield of Achilles”?

Ans: War’s evils spare no one, not even heroes.

• What kind of poem is “Petition”?

Ans: A brief sonnet of prayer to God.

• What is the theme of “Petition”?

Ans: Diagnose modern ills; ask divine cure.

• Which modern diseases need “sovereign touch”?

Ans: Neurosis, breakdown, repressed desire, maladjustment.

• How is social change possible, according to Auden?

Ans: By inner transformation, a changed heart.

• Who are the “old Masters”?

Ans: Ancient tragedians and great painters like Brueghel.

• What is the “miraculous birth”?

Ans: Christ’s Resurrection foretold in Scripture.

• What is “Brueghel’s Icarus”?

Ans: A landscape showing Icarus falling unnoticed.

• What is the theme of “Musée des Beaux Arts”?

Ans: Human indifference to others’ suffering.

• Who are “the inconstant ones”?

Ans: People who change views to please power.

• Why are the limestone men “unable to conceive a god”?

Ans: They think God lacks moral sense.

• What is the “nomad’s comb”?

Ans: A hair fringe shading a desert gaze.

• Who are “the best” and “the worst”?

Ans: Saints are best; Caesars are worst.

• What do the “granite wastes” symbolize?

Ans: Hard, saintly natures forming future saints.

• What do the “clays and gravels” symbolize?

Ans: Malleable people and fruitful environments.

• What is an “anti-mythological myth”?

Ans: A myth made from real human life.

• What lesson is in “In Praise of Limestone”?

Ans: Face reality; avoid dreamy escapes.

• What does the title “Lullaby” signify?

Ans: A soothing song to lull a lover.

• Whom does Achilles refer to?

Ans: The modern man amid cruel times.

• What is Auden’s message in “Lullaby”?

Ans: Change eros into agape for humanity.

• Who “die morally,” according to Auden?

Ans: Cowards who tolerate tyrants’ cruelties.

• What is Auden’s message in “Lullaby”?

Ans: Transform passion into universal charity.

• Who is the mother of Achilles?

Ans: The sea-nymph Thetis.

• What is the source of the title “Out, Out—”?

Ans: Macbeth’s line: “Out, out, brief candle!”

• Why does Auden call the lover faithless?

Ans: Humans are imperfect and inconstant.

• What does the title “The Shield of Achilles” signify?

Ans: The shield as art and modern condition.

• How is modern man a prisoner of society?

Ans: Systems oppress him and limit freedom.

• Who is the “She” in “The Shield of Achilles”?

Ans: Thetis; also the expectant reading public.