Shield of Achilles by Auden
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Poetry Analysis:W.H.Auden's “The Shield of Achilles”
01.
Analysis of W.H.Auden's “The Shield of Achilles”
.“The Shield of Achilles” belongs to W.H.Auden’s collection The Shield of Achilles published in 1955The classical myth of Achilles is employed by Auden to exemplify the contrast between the valiant past and unheroic present. The myth of the past is juxtaposed with the reality of the present. The classical world is set against modernity. Monroe.K.Spears asserts that the shield symbolizes images of the human condition. The poem portrays the insignificance of Life devoid of conviction. The poem thematically is quite similar to Eliot’s “Wasteland” in its depiction of a world devoid of principles and ethics, that in its march for success has lost the true meaning as echoed in phrases like “an unintelligible multitude”, ”column by column in a cloud of dust”. etc. The Homeric myth is rendered into an allegory of the contemporary times. A conceptual construct drives us from myth to reality, where reality is supposed to demythify myths. It is Auden’s disgust at the totalitarian regime of the modern world where the individual is relegated. The Achillean world serves as his mouthpiece to comment on the stagnation of the Modern world.
Thetis, the mother of Achilles looks at the shield of Achilles that was hanging over his shoulder, Achilles is the celebrated Greek warrior of the Trojan War. The shield at once acts as an emblem of art, and a historian, in that it reflects the civilization of a certain time. It was specially made for Achilles by Haphaestous, the blacksmith of the Gods . The mother searches for:
For vines and olive trees,
Marble well-governed cities
And ships upon untamed seas,
But there on the shining metal His hands had put instead
An artificial wilderness
And a sky like lead.
It reflects the hollowness and futility of a life that verges on nothingness. The word artificial points to the superficiality of this sort of life. The
Poetry Analysis:W.H.Auden's “The Shield of Achilles”
01.
Analysis of W.H.Auden's “The Shield of Achilles”
.“The Shield of Achilles” belongs to W.H.Auden’s collection The Shield of Achilles published in 1955The classical myth of Achilles is employed by Auden to exemplify the contrast between the valiant past and unheroic present. The myth of the past is juxtaposed with the reality of the present. The classical world is set against modernity. Monroe.K.Spears asserts that the shield symbolizes images of the human condition. The poem portrays the insignificance of Life devoid of conviction. The poem thematically is quite similar to Eliot’s “Wasteland” in its depiction of a world devoid of principles and ethics, that in its march for success has lost the true meaning as echoed in phrases like “an unintelligible multitude”, ”column by column in a cloud of dust”. etc. The Homeric myth is rendered into an allegory of the contemporary times. A conceptual construct drives us from myth to reality, where reality is supposed to demythify myths. It is Auden’s disgust at the totalitarian regime of the modern world where the individual is relegated. The Achillean world serves as his mouthpiece to comment on the stagnation of the Modern world.
Thetis, the mother of Achilles looks at the shield of Achilles that was hanging over his shoulder, Achilles is the celebrated Greek warrior of the Trojan War. The shield at once acts as an emblem of art, and a historian, in that it reflects the civilization of a certain time. It was specially made for Achilles by Haphaestous, the blacksmith of the Gods . The mother searches for:
For vines and olive trees,
Marble well-governed cities
And ships upon untamed seas,
But there on the shining metal His hands had put instead
An artificial wilderness
And a sky like lead.
It reflects the hollowness and futility of a life that verges on nothingness. The word artificial points to the superficiality of this sort of life. The