November 08, 2006
Auden's "On the Circuit"
Since much of the English world has decided to not notice Auden's centenary, I'll just celebrate with Abbas and any other who cares to join me. Here's an audio recording of Auden reading his "On the Circuit":
And on this day after elections, I want to note also the seemingly appropriate (in an out of context way) last verse from "A Walk After Dark":Among pelagian travelers/Lost on their lewd conceited way/To Massachusetts, Michigan/Miami or L.A.
An airborne instrument I sit/Predestined nightly to fulfill/Columbia-Giesen-Management's/Unfathomable will
By whose election justified/I bring my gospel of the Muse/To fundamentalists, to nuns/to Gentiles and to Jews
And daily, seven days a week,/Before a local sense has jelled,/From talking-site to talking-site/Am jet-or-prop-propelled.
But the stars burn on overhead,
Unconscious of final ends,
As I walk home to bed,
Asking what judgment waits
My person, all my friends,
And these United States.
I'm tempted to invite: "Open thread: favorite Auden poem".
Posted by Robin Varghese at 06:07 PM | Permalink
Comments
Rejoice. What talent for the makeshift thought
A living corpus out of odds and ends?
What pedagogic patience taught
Pre-occupied and savage elements
To dance into a segregated charm?
Who showed the whirlwind how to be an arm,
And gardened from the wilderness of space
The sensual properties of one dear face?
Rejoice, dear love, in Love’s peremptory word;
All chance, all love, all logic, you and I,
Exist by grace of the Absurd,
And without conscious artifice we die:
So, lest we manufacture in our flesh
The lie of our divinity afresh,
Describe round our chaotic malice now,
The arbitrary circle of a vow.
Posted by: Bill | Nov 8, 2006 7:47:06 PM
The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach,
The Ogre cannot master Speech:
About a subjugated plain,
Among its desperate and slain,
The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,
While drivel gushes from his lips.
Posted by: chuk | Nov 9, 2006 1:48:51 AM
Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.
If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.
There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.
The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.
Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.
Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away?
Will time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.
Posted by: Rehan Qayoom | Dec 22, 2006 1:05:36 PM
How do u think Auden's 'On the Circuit' satirizes American society and what techniques does he use to do so?
Thnank you
Posted by: edward | Mar 7, 2007 8:41:29 PM
This poem is hard for me to understand......does anyone know how he satirizes American society? And like the previous question what techniques are used?
Posted by: des | Mar 12, 2007 6:25:24 AM
Why do you think he's satirizing the US?
Posted by: Robin | Mar 12, 2007 11:21:29 AM
well i got it for an English assignment. The assignment asks how it satirizes the transient and superficial nature of American life in the 1940s.
Posted by: Des | Mar 13, 2007 6:02:10 AM
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