22 pages • 44 minutes read
Wystan Hugh AudenIn Memory of W. B. Yeats
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1939A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
The poem is divided into three sections, each with its distinctive form and meter. Section 1 is written in free verse. The five unrhymed stanzas differ widely in terms of line and stanza length. Stanzas 1, 3, and 4 have six lines; Stanza 2 has five lines, and Stanza 5 has eight lines.
Section 2 comprises one stanza of 10 lines. The meter or rhythmic arrangement is varied. Most of the lines have five beats (stressed syllables), although the shorter last line of the section has only three: “A way of happening, a mouth” (Line 41).
Section 3 comprises trochaic tetrameter quatrains. A trochee is a poetic foot in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable. A tetrameter consists of four poetic feet. However, these quatrains are made up of catalectic lines, a term that refers to a metrical line of verse in which the second syllable of the final foot is omitted. Each trochaic line of these quatrains therefore consists of seven rather than eight syllables, with the final unstressed syllable (that would complete the tetrameter) being dropped: “Earth, receive an honored guest; / William Yeats is laid to rest” (Lines 42-43).
Rhyme
Only Sections 2 and 3 are rhymed. In Section 2, all the rhymes except for one are imperfect rhymes, also known as off-rhyme, near rhyme, or slant rhyme, in which the final consonants rhyme but the vowel sounds do not. Examples include “all” and “still” (Lines 32, 35) and “survives” and “executives” (Lines 36-37). The one perfect rhyme of identical vowel and consonant sounds is the final one, “south” and “mouth” (Lines 38, 41). One rhyme is identical rhyme, in which the same word appears twice in the rhyming position. This is “survives” (Lines 36, 40). The rhyme scheme can be represented as ABBACCDCCD.
In Section 3, in each quatrain, Lines 1 and 2 rhyme, as do Lines 3 and 4. The recurring rhyme scheme can therefore be presented as AABB. Each quatrain in effect consists of two rhyming couplets. The large majority of rhymes are perfect rhymes, such as “guest” and “rest” (Lines 42-43), with a few imperfect rhymes, such as “excuse” and “views” (Lines 54-55).
Allusion
An allusion is a brief mention or indirect reference to something that lies outside the poem, such as another poem or work of literature, or a historical event or person. In Section 3, Auden alludes to two historical figures: Rudyard Kipling and Paul Claudel. He admires their work but rejects their politics.
Kipling (1865-1936) was an English novelist and poet, who was much acclaimed during his lifetime. He was an enthusiastic supporter of British imperialism and wrote jingoistic verse that glorified it, such as the 1899 lyric “The White Man’s Burden” (though he is best known to modern audiences for his works for children, including The Jungle Book [1894]). By 1939, when Auden wrote his poem, Kipling’s star had dimmed somewhat as anti-imperialist sentiment grew, although he was defended by such literary figures as T. S. Eliot and George Orwell.
Paul Claudel (1868-1955) was a French poet, dramatist, and diplomat. He was widely admired as a writer, as Auden acknowledges, but Auden disliked Claudel’s right-wing political views and his antisemitism. During the Spanish Civil War, Claudel expressed his support for General Franco’s fascism, while Auden was ardently on the opposing side.
In these three stanzas (Lines 46-57), there may also be an unspoken allusion to Yeats, who did not hold democracy as an absolute ideal and appeared at times to favor autocracy or dictatorship.
Apostrophe
An apostrophe is a direct address to a person, living or dead, or to some other being, or to an object. The first three lines of Section 2 are an apostrophe addressed to Yeats himself: “You were silly like us: your gift survived it all” (Line 32). Section 3 begins with an apostrophe to the earth: “Earth, receive an honored guest” (Line 42). Later in that section, the speaker apostrophes the “poet,” who might be Yeats, Auden himself, or any other poet: “Follow, poet, follow right / To the bottom of the night” (Lines 66-67), and this apostrophe continues until the end of the poem.
