Poem "The Wanderer" by W. H. Auden

Résumé du document

What could a layman think about such a poem? When one tries to understand a poem, it is in fact a whole work that must be understood; a whole thought that has to be reached. Whether we are studying a poem by W. H. Auden, E. Bishop, W. B. Yeats, or A. Sexton, it is impossible to understand it without taking an interest in their comprehensive works. For that reason, as with many poets, after having read The Wanderer, the reader is under the impression that the poem is nothing but a cryptic text. That feeling prevents the understanding of the poem, but must be overrun in order to get the full meaning of it. That observation raises several inquiries that we will try to determinate. That is why commenting on how a poem is a singular piece of a larger work and what is meant through it cannot be overlooked or fathomed aside. Indeed, we cannot aspire to comment effectively on The Wanderer without having a look at the creative thought of W. H. Auden, were it brief.

The Wanderer; hardly is this word out that the reader is already taken away. We cannot deny the importance of seeking faraway confines in W. H. Auden's poetry; we find it in this poem, but also throughout his whole poetic work. The idea of the existence of a way out is shown through this poem. However, where does Auden really flee? This quest for another world also reflects a deep elegiac tone that pervades his style.

Extraits

[...] All that we can say is that this poem describes a possibility of what could happen. The use of the subjunctive, in the second verse, has a hypothetical value of what can happen. Auden's literary process is very effective: while the eventuality of an undetermined action is introduced line 2 (for this grammar construction does not allow the reader to anticipate what is coming. Indeed, we do not know yet that he should leave his house and eventually specified line the reader has already caught a glimpse of where the poet is currently living, lines 3 and 4. [...]

[...] Still, something remains that words will never be able to analyze. Happily it is so! Auden wrote about Yeats: You were silly like us; your gift survived it all: [ ] For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives In Memory of W. B. Yeats, II By linking silliness and gift, Auden reached the very goal of poetry: survival And what is this poem, otherwise an attempt to survival? Bibliography A companion to Twentieth-century Poetry. Fish in the Unruffled Lakes In Memory of W. B. [...]

[...] Let us say what are the descriptions: stranger to strangers”, “lonely on fell as “[there head] dreams of “bird-flocks nameless to men making another love”. Everything seems to be different here, nothing looks familiar to him. The recurrence of home, “houses for fishes”, “dreams of homes”, birds, bird stone haunting”, “bird-flocks”, gives to the poem all its elegiac tone: although the man feels no remorse, he is still fond of his country, his past. These new lands make him think of his past, it cannot fade from his memory. [...]

[...] However, where does Auden really flee? These leaks, this quest for another world also reflect a deep elegiac tone that pervades his style. What may be his motivations, his sadness and sorrows? Finally, we must admit that a kind of abstruse mysticism remains, and that the key to the poem is not always accessible by explanations and commentaries. The reader must have a poetic sensitivity to get into the poem. And by the way, is not it the meaning of a poem: sensitivity? [...]

[...] Time and God are pregnant in Auden's Poems. We should almost say that Time, that Devil in the clock[1], is at least as harmful as Good is protective. Time will not protect him; he knows it. That “tiger's and that “house where days are counted” are recurrent metaphor in Auden's Poetry: Yet Time, however loud its chimes or deep However fast its falling torrent flows, Has never put one lion off his leap Nor shaken the assurance of a rose. [...]