H.G_Auden

Compare and contrast they way Auden and Tennyson explore loss in their poetry Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) was an English-born poet who was considered to be among the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, (1809 – 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during a large part of Queen Victoria's reign; he remains one of the formost poets in the English language. Both of these accomplished poets are associated with loss and calamity. They examine the subject of death and mourning in a completely different way. In the poem “Funeral Blues”, Auden writes with an extremely bitter interpretation of hopelessness and eternal sadness as a result of losing a loved one. The poem composed by Tennyson called “Break, Break, Break” conveys the fact that nature does not cease to mourn the loss of anybody; it connotes bereavement and irrecoverable loss. Both of these poems were inspired by their own personal loss which makes it more compelling. Auden and Tennyson use similar techniques to explore and create touching and poignant poems. Despite that, they also differ from each other in the way they comprehend death. In this essay, I will analyse the techniques used in their poetry and compare and contrast the content which creates such a unique, deep and distinguished piece of poetry. The title of Auden’s poem immediately grabs your attention with an imperative, “Stop all the clocks…” The clock being stopped may signify the fact that he who died has run out of time and also the world should pause and reflect on his lover’s life in peace. In this case, the imperative comes across as a strong feeling of displeasure and anger. In Tennyson’s poem, it begins with a strong intensity and desperation. In the title “Break, Break, Break” has a similar effect because it is also and imperative and Break is also considered as an onomatopoeia. The title opens with an apostrophe to create three heavy beats, this shows that the poet can barely articulate his grief. As you read the title, you can feel the hurt and agonising pain of losing someone you love. Repetition is also used for emphasis, almost like Tennyson is echoing his anger. The use of imagery is very compelling; it creates a vivid picture in the reader’s mind of rocks crashing against the shore like the breaking of someone’s heart. The sea crashing upon the rocks reflects the turmoil of emotions when faced with great loss. Both poets have used imperatives for emphasis and to represent how they are feeling. In “Stop all the clocks” Auden writes in quatrains with the rhyming scheme of AABB, this is called rhyming couplets. The rhyming scheme makes the poem flow with ease, so the diction becomes clearer and you can read it at any pace you want, and it will still be effective. The speaker is serious, sad, and uses a relaxed style of speech. The diction is formal; however, it is not too elaborate or complex, so the words have a greater impact on the reader as they can understand the content and the deeper meaning. The tone conveys that the speaker has a mournful attitude towards the man who died. There is no shift in tone, showing that the speaker’s attitude is solid, confident, and unchanging, which may mean that the man who died had been in the speaker’s life for a long time. Tennyson’s poem “Break, Break, Break” is in contrast to “Stop all the clocks” because Tennyson uses archaic language to portray his feelings, for example, “At the foot of thy crags, O sea!” This technique slows the reader down as they try to comprehend and look for deeper meaning, it is harder to understand and it makes you think on a deeper level, as it is more abstract and not clear how the speaker is feeling. In addition, it is difficult for the reader to relate to the feelings and emotion behind the old language and this make the reader feel isolated. Tennyson differs from Auden’s rhyming scheme as he rhymes every second and fourth line in the stanzas; this creates a rhyming scheme of ABCB. For this reason, the flow of the poem is conclusively different which alters the style of the speech and diction. The tone is sorrowful, despairing, sombre and almost mystically unreal in parts. The poem is a lament with the diction being simple; it has slow and regular rhythm. The words seem to have a musical quality about them. The tone demonstrates a more anguished and bereft attitude, and coveys the isolation and loss more convincingly than “Stop all the clocks”, for example “And I would that my tongue would utter the thoughts that arise in me.” Both poems have four lines and four stanzas and are also both written in the first person. The effect of writing in the first person is that you can understand and can relate to the poem with ease and step in to the shoes of the speaker. The poems are instantly brought to life by using this technique. In “Break, Break, Break” the stanza begins with a strong intensity and desperation in the speaker’s sadness. Tennyson is paralyzed by the grief he is feeling, and he can not find the words to express and release his emotions, even thought he desperately needs to. This is because he feels there is no one else to talk to now that he has lost his best friends, as shown in this quote “On thy cold grey stones, O sea!” Tennyson used the exclamation mark as an appeal or a cry to God, this shows that Tennyson was spiritual. The stones are ambiguous; they represent the dull, bleak surroundings, but they also symbolize the wearing down of a rock, like how Tennyson is fading away and falling apart without his best friend. The loneliness is exposed as Tennyson addresses the sea, this connotes that he can only turn nature to explore his feelings. Tennyson’s feelings washed over him like the sea, and those feelings will always be there and scar him for the rest of his life, like how the sea will constantly strike against the cold grey rocks. In Auden’s first stanza he starts almost every line with an imperative like “Stop….” and “Bring…” This conveys the anger and displeasure, and grabs your attention, and informs the reader of Auden’s brutal authority. Auden writes in this manner to magnify the mood of his sorrowful anger. The telephone being cut off brings forth the idea of silence. Auden does this to show the respect his loved one deserved, however, this is an unrealistic idea, and one that shows the speaker may be so antagonized and tornup over this death that perhaps the speaker is not thinking clearly. Auden believes in honoring the dead with a moment of silence to pay respect. He is saddened by the passage of time and its inevitabilities, yet he is not bitter. “Silence the pianos and with muffled drum” this connotes that the speaker doesn’t want to hear any music (which represents happiness) but there are still distorted memories that the speaker will always remember, and doesn’t want to completely block out. The clocks not ticking, the dog not barking, and the pianos muffled by a drum gives the reader an auditory sense of immense silence. Moreover, the speaker’s pain is intensified as nature continues on as if nothing has changed. A dog's natural inclination to bark happily is considered painful to view. Auden and Tennyson wrote their first stanzas in the same way. They both based their stanzas on loneliness and emptiness and included lots of imagery to set the scene and to help comprehend the deeper meaning. Also, caesura is used in both poems to slow the lines down to create tension, and to have a bigger impact of the reader. The caesura changes the flow of the poems, which is very effective. In addition, they both used imperatives to portray the anger. In the second stanza, the mood of the poem shifts from the very bleak imagery of the cold sea to positive images of youngsters playing and singing as Tennyson observes his surroundings. Tennyson explains how the youth may see a diverting and harmless world, but he has seen the cruel, pitiless and merciless world that lingers beneath the concealment of affliction and suffering, for example, “O well for the fisherman’s boy, that he shouts with sister at play!” Tennyson also portrays a sense of jealously in that quote, because he feels that the world is being unfeeling towards him and not the children, and the fact that the speaker once had an innocent childhood. However, he seems to be resentful to some degree. This stanza shows the contrast between happiness in youth, and sadness upon maturity, it is set apart from the poem’s bleak mood. A sense of joy and completeness is reinforced by the poem’s sounds, firstly in alliteration, for example, “shouts with his sister” and “his boat on the bay!” Sibilance and stress are used in the verbs “shouts” and “sings”, and the rhyme of “play!” and “bay!” which connects the two ideas together. In the second stanza of “Stop all the clocks” the speaker states, "let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead." This personification suggests that even inanimate objects should act in a negative manner and share the dread of the narrator. Auden uses this metaphoric image to convey the pointlessness of his life and also his grief. What point is there for aero planes to fly in circles' She is comparing the pointlessness of flying in circles to her life without her partner. “He is dead,” is a statement and is monosyllabic; it breaks up the flow with a powerful statement that shows the fact that the speaker has to come to terms with the reality of it, he is dead. The capital D used for Dead represents the anger. “Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves. Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.” In this quote the white contrasts from the black. He uses the symbolism to express a certain respectful mourning. The reader can almost see the funeral procession of grieving family members and friends as they bring the coffin out with solemnity. Despite that, the people do show respect, but do they really care' This quote is ambiguous. Both of the second stanzas in each poem differ from each other as In Auden’s “Stop all the clocks” the stanza is more about publicizing the death of his loved one and feeling the pain. On the contrary, Tennyson talks about the jealously he faces, and how he wishes he could relive his childhood, without any cares in the world. In the stanzas no caesura is used. Both authors use metaphorical language and personification to emphasize a funereal tone. Tennyson continues to be influenced by his observations in the third stanza “And the stately ships go on” Tennyson is certainly describing life moving on but with a slightly softer tone than he previously used with the youthful characters. The speaker sees the stately ships as representing age, maturity and strength as they command respect on the sea in direct contrast to the fisherman’s boy and the sailor lad who provoked bitterness. The ships find “their haven under the hill” like Tennyson who longs for a safe refuge away from the sorrow and pain. The image echoes the insecurity the poet feels without his dear friend. However, Tennyson uses a softer use of language here with the repetitive unvoiced ‘h’ sound in ‘To their haven under the hill’ and later in ‘hand’. There is a sense that Tennyson is starting to accept his situation as the poem progresses to the final conclusion. Then suddenly, the poet returns to his anguish having momentarily forgotten it, lost in his surroundings “But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,” This hints that perhaps there was sexual closeness between the two men. There is a pause using a semi colon at the end of line to begin the next line as he again feels the pain. A repeat of the anguished exclamation ‘O’ appears again as Tennyson takes us back to his sorrow and grief.  In Auden’s third stanza he starts by saying "He was my North, my South, my East, my West," This is another line showing Audens love and passion. It shows that his lover was everything to him; he must have really been in love as he compared him to nature. These markings are most often found on a compass, which gives directions. Having lost his 'compass' (lover) Auden's life loses direction also: he is lost without his partner. “I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong” This quote is very dramatic as it is like a hit of reality and naivety, including caesura; its like saying Love is dead! Both poems in the third stanza do not use imperatives, this is because they have a more gentle tone, and the anger in the first stanza is turned into a sense of longing. Both poets are being merely selfish as they don’t consider what the person they lost meant to others. Auden compares his lover to the Nature and it beauty “Pack up the moon”, but Tennyson talks about how his best friend made him feel safe “haven under the hill”. In both poems the grief is set against things which are permanent, for example, the sea and the stars. Auden wrote his poem for his lover and he was a homosexual, and certainly one very much in love, however, Tennyson was writing about his best friend, who was very dear to him. The In “break, break, break” Tennyson is deprived of friendship, but Auden is deprived of love. There is a sense of finality in this stanza strengthened by the vocabulary. The words ‘foot’, ‘dead’ and ‘never’ are associated with the end of something and signify Tennyson is moving on to accept the death of Hallam (his best friend). The tone of the concluding lines of the poem is sad. Like the poem and the waves of the sea, the poet’s emotions have gone like a full circle to conclude that his friend or perhaps lover has gone forever and will never come back. In conclusion, the poem follows the natural progression of the emotions of bereavement, shock and silence, resentment and anger and finally acceptance. There is also an interesting change in depiction of stones as “the foot of thy crags”. This emphasizes an aspect of the rocks as rough, sharp and grating, and there is a sense that the sea hurts itself as it crashes against them, confirming the damaging nature this state of mind brings. Both authors use metaphorical language and personification to emphasise a funereal tone, both Auden and Heaney personify common day objects to intensify the grim tone Finally, "the stars are not wanted now" again emphasizes the uselessness and worthlessness of a life without his lover. This poem is packed full of imagery. Perhaps this is to show us the vitality of life, and so give us better a sense of just how much Auden feels he has lost: he has spiritually died along with his lover. “For nothing now can ever come to any good” The alliteration in this quote closes the poem nicely as it ends like a conclusion and is very effective To conclude, although “Break, Break, Break” does create an effective sense of sadness, and has a certain degree of beauty about it, “Stop all the clocks” is more blatantly sorrowful and hopeless, promoting me to feel more sympathy for the bereaved Auden. From studying these two poems, I have learnt a lot about how different poets demonstrate many different emotions. “Stop all the clocks “and “Break, Break, Break” connect to each other through the use of tone, language, and structure; and both poets portray a very well-defined image of death and its effects on the individual, which is by no means desirable. Furthermore, Auden and Tennyson convey dissimilar stories of loss and the effects. The only other significant similarity is the imagery use throughout the poems. The moods are primarily sad but when analyzed, they show that the narrator of “Stop all the clocks” feels bitter anger and the narrator of “Break, Break, Break” feels tragic sorrow. The sadness of both poems intrigues me, and make me ponder about the poem long after I have read it, therefore it draws me closer to the poems.