[lit-ideas] Re: The Ostnia/Westland Room
- From: "Judith Evans" <judyevans@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:30:13 -0000
Thank you, Mike. I tried to find the poem myself, but with no success (I must
get a new Collected Auden).
Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Geary
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 3:58 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Ostnia/Westland Room
Many thanks to JL for his attempts to identify my Auden poem: thanks, but no
cigar. I found it just a moment ago though I've looked for 2 or 3 years at
least. It is section XV of "Sonnets From China". My memory had mutated it a
bit:
XV
As evening fell the day's oppression lifted;
Tall peaks came into focus; it had rained:
Across wide lawns and cultured flowers drifted
The conversation of the highly trained.
Their gardeners watched them pass and priced their shoes;
A chauffeur waited, reading in the drive,
For them to finish their exchange of views;
It looked a picture of the way to live.
Far off, no matter what good they intended,
Two armies waited for a verbal error
With well-made implements for causing pain,
And on the issue of their charm depended
A land laid waste with all its young men slain,
Its women weeping, and its towns in terror.
W. H. Auden (1938)
***********
Every time I listen to our "leaders" talking about war, I'm reminded of this
poem -- and though I scrabbled and scumbled the imagery badly, still the
meaning and sentiment is there. I shan't elaborate, if it doesn't kick you in
the gut, nothing I can say will.
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